Vehicle control system for controlling a vehicle function including a vehicle tracking unit and related methods

ABSTRACT

A vehicle control system includes a tracking unit and a function unit cooperating therewith. The tracking unit may include a vehicle position determining device, a wireless communications device, and a tracking controller cooperating with the vehicle position determining device and the wireless communications device to send vehicle position information to a monitoring station. Further, the function unit may include at least one uniquely coded transmitter to be carried by a user, a receiver at the vehicle for receiving signals from the at least one uniquely coded transmitter, and a function controller at the vehicle and connected to the receiver for learning the at least one uniquely coded transmitter to permit control of a vehicle function by the user. The function controller may advantageously cooperate with the wireless communications device of the tracking unit for sending an alert indication of whether at least one new uniquely coded transmitter has been learned.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/859,727 filed May 17, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No.6,512,465, which, in turn, is based upon copending provisionalapplication serial Nos. 60/264,811 filed on Jan. 29, 2001; 60/258,005,filed Dec. 22, 2000; 60/251,552, filed Dec. 6, 2000; 60/252,125, filedNov. 20, 2000; 60/236,890, filed Sep. 29, 2000; 60/246,463, filed Nov.7, 2000; 60/222,777, filed Aug. 3, 2000; and 60/205,178, filed May 17,2000, the entire contents of each of which are incorporated herein byreference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of vehicle devices, and, moreparticularly, to a tracking and alerting system for a vehicle.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Vehicle security systems are widely used to deter vehicle theft, preventtheft of valuables from a vehicle, deter vandalism, and to protectvehicle owners and occupants. A typical automobile security system, forexample, includes a central processor or controller connected to aplurality of vehicle sensors. The sensors, for example, may detectopening of the trunk, hood, doors, windows, and also movement of thevehicle or within the vehicle. Ultrasonic and microwave motiondetectors, vibration sensors, sound discriminators, differentialpressure sensors, and switches may be used as sensors. In addition,radar sensors may be used to monitor the area proximate the vehicle.

The controller typically operates to give an alarm indication in theevent of triggering of a vehicle sensor. The alarm indication maytypically be a flashing of the lights and/or the sounding of the vehiclehorn or a siren. In addition, the vehicle fuel supply and/or ignitionpower may be selectively disabled based upon an alarm condition.

A typical security system also includes a receiver associated with thecontroller that cooperates with one or more remote transmitterstypically carried by the user. The remote transmitter may be used to armand disarm the vehicle security system or provide other remote controlfeatures from a predetermined range away from the vehicle. U.S. Pat.Nos. 5,654,688; 6,140,938 and 6,144,315, assigned to the assignee of thepresent invention, disclose a significant advance in vehicle securitywhereby the user may be provided with an indication of the number ofremote transmitters learned and thereby capable of operating the system.The user may also be provided with an indication that the number oflearned remote transmitters has recently changed. Accordingly, awould-be thief cannot simply learn a new transmitter, for example, tooperate the vehicle's security system, and later return to steal of thevehicle or its contents.

In addition, motor vehicles, such as passenger cars, trucks, busses,fleet vehicles, etc. are widely used and knowing the locations of suchvehicles is often desired. For example, should a vehicle be stolen, itwould be beneficial to know the vehicle's location so that authoritiescould be promptly and accurately directed to retrieve the vehicle.Indeed, the tracking system could plot the getaway path of the thief.

For a company with hired drivers, it may be desirable to know thedriver's whereabouts during the course of the day. Similarly, a rentalcar agency or other fleet operator, for example, may wish to know thewhereabouts of its fleet of vehicles.

It may also be desirable to track the location of a vehicle as it isused throughout the course of a normal day. For parents of younger orolder drivers, for example, knowledge of the vehicle's location mayprovide some assurance that the driver is at designated locations andfollowing a prescribed route.

A number of patents disclose various systems and approaches to trackingvehicles. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,844 discloses a trackingsystem including a control center and a mobile unit installed in thevehicle. The mobile unit may send security warnings to the commandcenter via a wireless transceiver. Position information for the vehicleis determined using a GPS receiver at the vehicle.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,043 discloses a similar system which may send one ormore preprogrammed telephone messages to a user when away from thevehicle. The user may remotely access location information or causecertain commands to be carried out by entering a personal identificationnumber (PIN).

The widespread availability and use of the Internet has prompted anumber of vehicle tracking systems to also make use of the Internet. Forexample, TelEvoke, Inc. proposed such a system in combination withClifford Electronics. The system was to provide notification, controland tracking services via the telephone or the Internet. Users could benotified via phone, e-mail, or pager of events such as a car alarm beingtriggered. Users could control the vehicle remote devices via phone,web, or PDA such as unlocking car doors. Additionally, users could trackTelEvoke-enabled vehicles on the Internet or via the telephone. AnInternet map could be viewed by the user showing the actual and priorvehicle locations. TelEvoke offered its services via a centralized fullyautomated Network Operations Center. To reduce the communications costs,it was proposed to use the control channel of the cellular telephonenetwork.

Many conventional vehicle tracking units include many input and outputconnections. Accordingly, such units may be difficult to install in avehicle. This is especially so since the space available to access andconnect to vehicle wires is likely to be restricted. Accordingly, errorsin the initial installation may occur. Accurate diagnosis of any sucherrors may be time consuming and add further to the installation costs.Maintenance of an installed system may also be complicated if eachconnection must be individually checked and rechecked.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the foregoing background, it is therefore an object of thepresent invention to provide a vehicle control system which providesvehicle tracking and function control capabilities.

This and other objects, features, and advantages in accordance with thepresent invention are provided by a vehicle control system including atracking unit and a function unit cooperating therewith. The trackingunit may include a vehicle position determining device, a wirelesscommunications device, and a tracking controller cooperating with thevehicle position determining device and the wireless communicationsdevice to send vehicle position information to a monitoring station.Further, the function unit may include at least one uniquely codedtransmitter to be carried by a user, a receiver at the vehicle forreceiving signals from the at least one uniquely coded transmitter, anda function controller at the vehicle and connected to the receiver forlearning the at least one uniquely coded transmitter to permit controlof a vehicle function by the user. The function controller mayadvantageously cooperate with the wireless communications device of thetracking unit for sending an alert indication of whether at least onenew uniquely coded transmitter has been learned.

More particularly, the vehicle control system may further include alocal indicator connected to the function controller for providing alocal indication of whether at least one uniquely coded transmitter hasbeen learned. Also, the vehicle function may be associated with startingof a vehicle engine, vehicle door locks, and/or vehicle security.

The function controller may be switchable to a learning mode to permitlearning of the at least one uniquely coded transmitter, and thefunction controller may cooperate with the wireless communicationsdevice for sending the alert indication when the learning mode has beenentered. Moreover, the function controller may cooperate with thewireless communications device for sending the alert indication when thelearning mode has last been entered.

Additionally, the function controller may cooperate with the wirelesscommunications device for sending the alert indication for a passage oftime since the learning mode has last been entered. Similarly, thefunction controller may cooperate with the wireless communicationsdevice for sending the alert indication for a number of learned uniquelycoded transmitters, as well as for sending the alert indication for achange in a number of learned uniquely coded transmitters, and/or forsending the alert indication for a change in a code of at least onelearned uniquely coded transmitter.

Further, the at least one uniquely coded transmitter may include atleast one uniquely coded remote transmitter, as well as at least oneuniquely coded transponder transmitter, for example. The vehicleposition determining device may be a Global Positioning System (GPS)device, and the wireless communications device may be a cellulartelephone communications device, for example.

The function unit may also include a biometric characteristic sensor forsensing a unique biometric characteristic of a user, and a functioncontroller at the vehicle and connected to the biometric characteristicsensor for learning the unique biometric characteristic to permitcontrol of a vehicle function by the user. Moreover, the functioncontroller may cooperate with the wireless communications device of thetracking unit for sending an alert indication of whether at least onenew unique biometric characteristic has been learned.

A vehicle control method aspect of the invention for a vehicle includinga vehicle tracking unit for sending vehicle position information to amonitoring station may include receiving signals from at least oneuniquely coded transmitter at a receiver at the vehicle, and learningthe at least one uniquely coded transmitter to permit control of avehicle function by the user using a function controller at the vehicleand connected to the receiver. Furthermore, the method may also includesending an alert indication of whether at least one new uniquely codedtransmitter has been learned using the vehicle tracking unit.

Similarly, a unique biometric characteristic of a user may be sensedusing a biometric characteristic sensor at the vehicle, and the uniquebiometric characteristic may be learned to permit control of a vehiclefunction by the user using a function controller at the vehicle andconnected to the biometric characteristic sensor. In addition, an alertindication may be sent of whether at least one new unique biometriccharacteristic has been learned using the vehicle tracking unit.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of a vehicle tracking system inaccordance with the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a more detailed block diagram of the vehicle tracking unit asshown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is more detailed block diagram of the monitoring station as shownin FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for operation of the vehicle tracking system asshown in FIG. 1 illustrating a vehicle stolen alert.

FIGS. 5A-5C are a flowchart for operation of the vehicle tracking systemas shown in FIG. 1 illustrating a vehicle alarm sounding alert.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart for operation of the vehicle tracking system asshown in FIG. 1 illustrating a vehicle speeding alert.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart for operation of the vehicle tracking system asshown in FIG. 1 illustrating an unauthorized transmitter learned alert.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for operation of the vehicle tracking system asshown in FIG. 1 illustrating a low battery alert.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart for operation of the vehicle tracking system asshown in FIG. 1 illustrating a GPS or cellular unit failure alert.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating operation of the vehicle trackingunit as shown in FIG. 1 for direction deviation tracking.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating the direction deviation trackingoperation of FIG. 10 in further detail.

FIG. 12 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a pair of switchablepolarity output terminals, as generally illustrated in FIG. 2, connectedto a dual-motor vehicle device operable based upon output polarity.

FIGS. 13 and 14 are schematic block diagrams similar to FIG. 12 and bothillustrating alternate connection arrangements in which the vehicledevice is connected to a vehicle battery.

FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram illustrating the pair of switchablepolarity output terminals of FIG. 12 in greater detail.

FIGS. 16 and 17 are flowcharts illustrating yet another aspect of thepresent invention for varying a frequency at which the vehicle trackingunit of FIG. 1 sends vehicle position information to the monitoringstation.

FIGS. 18A and 18B are flowcharts illustrating yet another aspect of theinvention for using the vehicle tracking unit as shown in FIG. 1 todetermine and send vehicle position information based upon the vehiclemoving outside a radial threshold distance from a user selectedreference location.

FIG. 19 is a schematic block diagram illustrating the vehicle trackingunit of FIG. 1 including a user input device for setting the userselected reference location and/or a threshold time.

FIG. 20 is a schematic diagram illustrating the user selected radialthreshold and a radial threshold distance therefrom.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart illustrating another aspect of the invention forusing the vehicle tracking unit of FIG. 1 to provide an alarm indicationfor locating a vehicle and cease providing the alarm indication basedupon a user input.

FIGS. 22 and 23 are flowcharts illustrating yet another aspect of theinvention for sending alarm indication alerts based upon vehicle sensoractivation.

FIGS. 24 and 25 are flowcharts illustrating a further aspect of theinvention for selectively sending alert messages to a user.

FIG. 26 is a schematic block diagram of the vehicle tracking circuit ofFIG. 1 further including a security device detection circuit.

FIGS. 27 and 28 are flowcharts illustrating another aspect of theinvention for bypassing sending security signals while performingcertain vehicle functions.

FIG. 29 is a schematic block diagram of the vehicle tracking unit ofFIG. 1 also including the security device detection circuit and abattery sensing circuit.

FIGS. 30 and 31 are flowcharts illustrating a still further aspect ofthe invention for reducing excessive power drain on the vehicle batteryand/or the back-up battery.

FIG. 32 is a perspective view of the vehicle tracking unit of FIG. 1 andfurther including a housing with an upgrade connector for an upgradedevice.

FIG. 33 is a schematic block diagram of the vehicle tracking unit ofFIG. 32.

FIGS. 34 and 35 are flowcharts illustrating missed activation signalretrieval features of the present invention.

FIG. 36 is a schematic block diagram of an alternate embodiment of thevehicle as shown in FIG. 2 including a vehicle data bus.

FIG. 37 is a flowchart illustrating a method for controlling operablevehicle devices using the vehicle tracking unit and vehicle data busshown in FIG. 36.

FIGS. 38 and 39 are flowcharts illustrating a method according to theinvention for sending alert indications based upon learning uniquelycoded transmitters.

FIGS. 40 and 41 are flowcharts illustrating a related method accordingto the invention for sending alert indications based upon learningunique biometric characteristics.

FIGS. 42 and 43 are flowcharts illustrating another aspect according tothe present invention for determining fault conditions of the vehicletracking unit of FIG. 1.

FIGS. 44 and 45 are flowcharts illustrating still another advantageousaspect of the invention for providing theft alerts based upon vehiclealarm indicator activation and a drop in vehicle battery voltage.

FIGS. 46 and 47 are flowcharts illustrating a further aspect of theinvention for testing output drivers of the vehicle tracking unit ofFIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter withreference to the accompanying drawings in which preferred embodiments ofthe invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied inmany different forms and should not be construed as limited to theillustrated embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments areprovided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and willfully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.

Referring to FIGS. 1-3, the vehicle tracking system 20 in accordancewith the invention is now initially described. The vehicle system 20illustratively includes a vehicle tracking unit 25 to be mounted in thevehicle 21 and a monitoring station 30 which is remote from the vehicleand which is typically in a fixed location. In the illustratedembodiment, the vehicle tracking unit 25 interfaces with various vehicledevices, such as may include security sensors, door locks, etc. as willbe appreciated by those skilled in the art.

The vehicle tracking unit 25 is also illustratively connected to aseparate vehicle security system 27 as may already be installed in thevehicle 21, from the factory or installed as an aftermarket product.Those of skill in the art will appreciate that in some embodiments ofthe vehicle tracking system 20 a separate vehicle security system 27 maynot be needed, and/or various features thereof can be readilyincorporated in the vehicle tracking unit 25.

The monitoring station 30 may typically service a number of subscribers31. As shown perhaps best in FIG. 3, the monitoring station 30 mayinclude a user interface, such as the schematically illustratedtelephone network interface 33 and the internet interface 34 which areschematically coupled to a telephone 35, and a computer 36,respectively. Of course in other embodiments, other interfaces may beused and only one of the illustrated interfaces may be needed. Those ofskill in the art will also recognize that messages may be sent to asubscriber or user via preprogrammed voice messages, e-mail messages,facsimile messages, pager alerts, etc. In addition commands orinstructions from the subscriber can also be input to the monitoringstation 30 via the telephone network interface 33 and/or the internetinterface 34, from the subscribers telephone 35 or computer 36.

The monitoring station 30 is illustrated connected to a cellulartelephone tower 32 which, in turn, may communicate with the vehicletracking unit 25 in some embodiments. Of course, in other embodimentsother communications approaches are also contemplated, such as, forexample, including satellite communications.

The monitoring station 30 may typically include the necessary modems,and other communications electronics, and computers for its functionswhich are described in greater detail below. The configuration of suchcomponents and their details will be readily apparent to those skilledin the art. Accordingly, no further discussion of these details isneeded.

Referring now more specifically to FIG. 2, additional details of thevehicle tracking unit 25 and devices at the vehicle are now furtherdescribed. The vehicle tracking unit 25 illustratively includes acontroller 40, a vehicle position determining device 42, and a wirelesscommunications device 44 connected together. The vehicle positiondetermining device 42 may be provided by a GPS receiver, for example.The GPS receiver typically operates by receiving multiple signals fromspaced apart satellites 38 as will be appreciated by those skilled inthe art.

In other embodiments, the vehicle position determining device 42 may beprovided based upon communications with the cellular telephone network,or based upon other satellite transmissions, for example. As aparticular example, time of arrival techniques are available based uponmultiple reception paths to determine position via the cellulartelephone network as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.The vehicle position determining device 42 also illustratively includesan indicator 43 associated therewith, such as for indicating anoperating mode, or proper operation of the device as will be addressedin greater detail below.

The wireless communications device 44 may be provided by a cellulartelephone transceiver configured to operate on a control channel of thecellular network. Such a control channel may provide nearly universalcoverage for the tracking system 20 as will be appreciated by thoseskilled in the art. In addition, the control channel may offerrelatively inexpensive communications between the monitoring station 30and the vehicle tracking unit 25 as will be appreciated by those skilledin the art. The wireless communications device 44 also illustrativelyincludes an optional status indicator 45 with a similar function as theindicator 43 for the vehicle position determining device.

The wireless communications device 44 in other embodiments, may transmitin the voiceband of the cellular network. Alternately, the wirelesscommunications device may communicate over other networks, such as oversatellite, or via wireless internet services, as will be appreciated bythose skilled in the art.

The controller 40 illustratively includes a central processing unit(CPU) 50 or other logic circuitry which is connected to a clock signalgenerator 51 and a memory 52. In other embodiments, the memory 52 may bean embedded memory in the CPU 50. The controller 40 also includesschematically illustrated input/output circuitry 53 to interface withvarious vehicle devices. In particular the input/output circuitry 53 mayprovide dual polarity compatibility for one or more inputs or outputs aswill be described in greater detail below. One or more of the terminalsof the input/output circuitry 53 may also provide both input and outputfunctions as will also be described in greater detail below. This maysignificantly simplify and accelerate installation of the vehicletracking unit 25 in the vehicle 21.

Also illustratively shown as part of the vehicle tracking unit 25 are aback-up battery 54, and switch 55 connected thereto for selectivelypowering certain of the components based upon the controller 40. Ofcourse, the vehicle 21 also includes an electrical system including thevehicle battery 61. Powering of the vehicle tracking unit 25 isdescribed in greater detail below.

The vehicle 21 also includes a number of other components that mayrelate to vehicle tracking, security, and/or convenience featuresprovided by the vehicle tracking system 20. For example, the vehicle 21may include one or more door lock actuators 62, an optional remotestarting device 63, a starter interrupt device 66 and an alarm indicator67. For example, the alarm indicator may be provided by a vehicle hornor vehicle siren, and/or flashing of the lights.

The optional separate security system 27 illustratively includes avehicle security controller 28 and a receiver 29 connected thereto. Asis conventional, the vehicle security system 27 may be switched betweenarmed and disarmed modes, for example, by one or more uniquely codedremote transmitters 60. The vehicle security controller 28 may also becapable of learning a new uniquely coded remote transmitter 60 as willbe appreciated by those skilled in the art. The vehicle securitycontroller 28 also illustratively is connected to the starter interruptdevice 66 and the alarm indicator 67.

For ease of explanation, a number of the features of the vehicletracking system 20 are now described. The vehicle tracking system 20includes a number of features that may simplify installation andmaintenance. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the vehicle tracking unit25 may have a test switch 71 connected to the controller 40.

In normal operation, the controller 40 may be called upon to operate atleast one vehicle device. Of course, the controller 40 also cooperateswith the wireless communications device 44 and the vehicle positiondetermining device 42 to determine and send vehicle position informationto the monitoring station 30. Moreover, the controller 40 may beswitchable to a test mode for test operation of the at least one vehicledevice responsive to activation of the test switch 71.

In some embodiments, the at least one vehicle device may be a pluralityof vehicle devices that are tested by operation in sequence. Forexample, the at least one vehicle device may comprise at least one doorlock actuator 62. The at least one vehicle device may also comprise thestarter interrupt device 66, or the engine remote starter 63 if remotestarting is an implemented feature. The at least one vehicle devicewhich is tested, may also be the alarm indicator 67. Accordingly, aninstaller, for example, can quickly check that the tracking unit hasbeen properly installed.

To further provide for ready determination of proper operation of thevehicle tracking unit 25, one or both of the position determining andwireless communications devices 42, 44 may include associated indicators43, 45 as mentioned briefly above, and which provide an indicationrelating to proper operation. Each indicator 43, 45 may indicate a modeof operation of the device, its proper operation, or a partial orcomplete failure of the device.

Another aspect of the invention is that the controller 40 may provide aselectable polarity for the at least one vehicle device based uponsensing thereof. Accordingly, a predetermined activation of the testswitch 71 may cause the controller 40 to sense and select the properpolarity. Pressing the test switch 71 for a predetermined time or in apredetermined pattern may sense and set the polarity.

Another feature of the vehicle tracking unit 25 and vehicle trackingsystem 20 relates to conservation of the number of codes or messagesthat need to be sent to the vehicle tracking unit. In particular, thecontroller 40 may have a plurality of different controller states andrespond differently to a same message from the monitoring station 30 atdifferent times depending upon the controller state at a given time.Accordingly, a number of codes or messages used by the system can beconserved. Various messages are described in greater detail below.

A controller state may change based upon several different occurrencesor events. For example the controller may change states in response to achange in at least one vehicle device, or based upon a message receivedby the wireless communications device 44 from the monitoring station 30,and/or based upon elapsed time. The controller states, for example, mayinclude an alert sent state based upon an alert message being sent fromthe wireless communications device 44. Thereafter, receipt of apredetermined message by the wireless communications device 44 when thecontroller 40 is in the alert sent state may confirm receipt of thealert message by the monitoring station.

Receipt of the predetermined message by the wireless communicationsdevice 44 when the controller 40 is in another state different than thealert sent state may thus cause a different response by the controller.The alert sent state may comprise at least one of a vehicle stolen alertsent state, a vehicle alarm sounding alert sent state, a vehiclespeeding alert sent state, an unauthorized remote transmitter alert sentstate, a low vehicle battery alert sent state, and a device malfunctionalert sent state. The various alert messages and confirmation thereofare described in greater detail below.

The code or message conservation aspects of the vehicle tracking system20 also permit sending a sequence of codes or messages within apredetermined time to also cause a different response at the vehicletracking unit 25. In other words, the plurality of controller states maycomprise a received first message state based upon a first message beingreceived by the wireless communications device 44 from the monitoringstation 30. Receipt of a second message by the wireless communicationsdevice 44 when the controller 40 is in the received first message state,such as within a predetermined time window, for example, may thus causea different response by the controller than does receipt of the secondmessage when the controller is in another state than the received firstmessage state.

The plurality of controller states may comprise a vehicle finder statesounding an audible signal via the alarm indicator 67 at the vehicle 21.In this state the controller 40 would bypass sending a vehicle alarmsounding alert to the monitoring station 30.

Another aspect of the vehicle tracking system 20 is the provision ofcertain power conservation and management techniques, such as to permitextended periods where the vehicle 21 is not in operation. During suchextended periods, the vehicle battery 61 provides power to the vehicletracking unit 25 as well as other vehicle devices. Accordingly, thevoltage of the vehicle battery 61 drops over time. The vehicle trackingunit 25 may provide a significant drain on the vehicle battery 61because of the power consumed by the wireless communications device 44during transmission as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.

The vehicle position determining device 42, the wireless communicationsdevice 44 and the controller 40 may be considered as defining a powerload of the vehicle tracking unit 25. The controller 40 may operate theschematically illustrated power switch 55 to isolate the back-up battery54 from the power load as a voltage of the vehicle battery 61 dropsuntil reaching a threshold. After or below the threshold the controller40 may cause the back-up battery 54 to selectively power only a firstportion of the power load while a second portion of the power loadremains powered by the vehicle battery.

For example, the wireless communications device 44 may have a higheroperating voltage than the vehicle position determining device 42. Thefirst portion of the power load that is selectively powered despite thelow vehicle battery voltage may thus be the wireless communicationsdevice 44. In particular, the wireless communications device 44 may bepowered for transmission. Accordingly, the back-up battery 54 can besaved for limited communication using the higher voltage wirelesscommunications device 44. This provides useful features even after anextended period during which the vehicle 21 is left unattended and thevehicle battery 61 gradually discharges.

To further conserve power, the controller 40 may reduce operation of thepower load as vehicle battery voltage falls. Conversely, the controller40 may restore operation of the power load based upon the voltage of thevehicle battery 61 rising again, such as upon being recharged.

Also relating to power consumption, the controller 40 further causestransmission of a low vehicle battery voltage alert to the monitoringstation 30 based upon the voltage of the vehicle battery 61 fallingbelow the threshold. The user or subscriber may cause the monitoringstation 30 to issue a remote start command. The controller 40 may thengenerate a remote start output to the remote start device 63 to therebystart the engine and recharge the vehicle battery.

Another feature of the vehicle tracking system 20 is that the vehicletracking unit 25 may be readily installed and connected to a vehicle 21,such as in the illustrated embodiment where the vehicle includes astarter interrupt device 66 and a separate vehicle security controller28. More particularly, the controller 40 may switch between an armedmode and a disarmed mode based upon operation of the engine starterinterrupt device 66. The controller 40 when in the armed mode maycooperate with the wireless communications device 44 to send an alertmessage to the monitoring station 30 and including vehicle positioninformation, for example, based upon the vehicle position determiningdevice 42. The controller 40 is also for selectively operating theengine starter interrupt device 66 to provide additional securityfeatures.

In one advantageous embodiment, the controller 40 preferably comprises acombination input and output terminal for connection to the enginestarter interrupt device. This terminal is at the input/output circuitry53 and is schematically illustrated by reference numeral 72. Thecontroller 40 may switch to the armed mode when in the disarmed mode andbased upon the engine starter interrupt device 66 being operated todisable engine starting. Conversely, the controller 40 may switch to thedisarmed mode based upon the engine starter interrupt device 66 beingoperated to enable engine starting. In other words, the vehicle trackingunit 25 can piggyback its arming and disarming off the existing vehiclesecurity system 27, for example.

The controller 40 may also selectively operate the engine starterinterrupt device 66 based upon a command message from the monitoringstation 30. The controller 40 may selectively operate the engine starterinterrupt device 66 based upon a command message from the monitoringstation 30. Alternately, or in addition thereto, the controller 40 mayselectively operate the engine starter interrupt device 66 based uponthe ignition switch 65.

The following descriptive portions relate to various user or subscribernotifications and features provided by the vehicle tracking system 20.Of course, the controller 40 preferably cooperates with the wirelesscommunications device 44 to send an alert message. The monitoringstation 30 may comprise a user interface, such as one or both of thetelephone network or internet interfaces 33, 34, respectively (FIG. 3),for generating a sequence of alert message notifications based uponreceiving the alert message sent from the vehicle tracking unit 25. Moreparticularly, the monitoring station interface permits canceling anyremaining alert message notification based upon a cancellation commandresponse from a user or subscriber having already received the alertmessage notification. The user may send the cancellation response viathe telephone 35 or computer 36 (FIG. 3), for example. Thus, if the usermay be reached at different telephone numbers or different users aredesirably notified of the alert, this aspect of the vehicle trackingsystem 20 can make the notifications efficiently and without makingunnecessary notifications.

The vehicle tracking system 20 may provide any of a number of veryuseful alerts, as discussed herein. For example, the alert message sentfrom the vehicle tracking unit may comprise at least one of a vehiclestolen alert message, and a vehicle alarm sounding alert message. Thealert message may be one of a vehicle speeding alert message, and avehicle acceleration alert message. In addition, the alert message maycomprise an unauthorized remote transmitter alert message. Also, thealert message may be at least one of a low vehicle battery alertmessage, and a device malfunction alert message.

The speeding alert may be based upon exceeding a speed threshold forgreater than a certain time, which may be user selectable. Theacceleration alert may also be useful as such is also indicative ofaggressive driving along with the speeding alert. The unauthorizedremote transmitter alert increases overall security since a user will benotified if a would-be thief learns an unauthorized transmitter tooperate the controller. These alerts are described in greater detailbelow.

The vehicle tracking system 20 may be implemented as a service to asubscriber. In other words, the subscriber pays a monthly fee for theservice. Accordingly, it may be important to encourage a user toregister. Similar subscriber or registrations systems in the past havesuffered revenue losses since some users would wait to activate thesystem until the vehicle was stolen. In other words, the user would onlysubscribe or register and pay a single month's fee.

In accordance with this aspect of the vehicle tracking system 20 promptuser registration is encouraged. In particular, the vehicle trackingunit 25 may include the user registration reminder indicator 56 and thecontroller 40 may be switchable from an unregistered mode to aregistered mode. In the registered mode, the controller 40 may cooperatewith the wireless communications device 44 and the vehicle positiondetermining device 42 to determine and send vehicle position informationto the monitoring station 30. In the unregistered mode, the controller40 may activate the user registration reminder indicator 56 to encourageregistration by the user.

The controller 40 may be switchable to the registered mode based upon anactivation message from the monitoring station 30. For example, when theregistration payment has been received, the monitoring station can sendone or more messages to the vehicle tracking unit 25 to stop activationof the registration reminder indicator 56. The indicator 56 may beaudible, visual or both. For example, the registration reminderindicator 56 could be a beeping sound generated by a small piezoelectrictransducer every ten minutes or so when the ignition 65 is on.

In other words, the user registration reminder indicator 56 may providea minor but irritating annoyance to the user to encourage registration.Upon successfully registering, the annoyance is abated. Accordingly, arelatively straightforward approach is provided to encourage userregistration.

Along these lines, the controller 40 when in the unregistered mode mayhave reduced features compared to the registered mode. For example, thecontroller 40 when in the unregistered mode may be restricted or limitedin sending messages with the wireless communications device 44.Accordingly, usage of the wireless communications network may bereduced. Transmissions from the vehicle tracking unit 25 may also bebeneficially suppressed during original installation, for example.

Returning again to features of the vehicle tracking unit 25 whichfacilitate installation, the controller 40 may send an alarm indicationalert responsive to a continuous activation of the alarm indicator 67for greater than a predetermined time. Alternately, or in additionthereto, the controller 40 may send an alarm indication alert responsiveto a repetitive pattern of alarm indicator 67 activations. In otherwords, the controller may be configured to distinguish between normaloperation of a vehicle horn by the driver, and activation of the horn bythe security system 27. As mentioned above, the controller 40 may alsomonitor signals of at least one of a first and second polarity. Thecontroller 40 thus advantageously piggybacks off the alarm indicationgenerated by the vehicle security system 27 to determine and send avehicle alarm sounding alert to the monitoring station 30.

In one variation, the controller 40 may monitor signals delivereddirectly to the vehicle alarm indicator by the vehicle securitycontroller 28. In another variation, the controller 40 monitors signalsof voltage dips of the vehicle battery 61. Circuitry is conventionallyand readily available for both such functions, as will be readilyappreciated by those skilled in the art.

The controller 40 may also include a dual polarity compatible output inthe input/output circuitry 53 for a vehicle device, such as the vehiclealarm indicator 67. The controller 40 may further monitor signalsrelating to activation of the vehicle alarm indicator 67 and send analarm indication alert with position information from the vehicleposition determining device and using the wireless communication device.

For the dual polarity output compatibility, the controller 40 maygenerate a first polarity output pulse followed by a second polarityoutput pulse. The controller 40 may also generate a repeating pattern ofa first polarity output pulse followed by a second polarity output pulseon the dual polarity compatible output. In yet other embodiments, thecontroller 40 may sense an actual polarity of the device and thereafteruse the actual polarity for the dual polarity compatible output.

Where the vehicle device is a vehicle horn, the controller 40 maytypically be configured to generate a negative polarity output on thedual polarity compatible output. Conversely, wherein the vehicle deviceis a vehicle alarm indicator siren, the controller 40 may be configuredto generate a positive polarity output on the dual polarity compatibleoutput.

Another aspect of the vehicle tracking system 20 relates to conservingmemory space and/or reducing transmission time over the communicationsnetwork. In accordance with this advantageous feature, the controller 40may determine the vehicle position information including a vehiclelocation and an associated stationary period for each occurrence of thevehicle remaining stationary for greater than a predetermined period. Inone embodiment, the controller 40 may cooperate with the wirelesstransmission device 44 to send the vehicle position information to themonitoring station based upon each occurrence of the vehicle remainingstationary for greater than the predetermined period. In thisembodiment, the monitoring station 30 may associate a time with eachoccurrence of the vehicle remaining stationary for greater than thepredetermined period. In other words, the monitoring station 30 may timestamp the received information.

In another embodiment, the controller 40 cooperates with the wirelesstransmission device 44 to send the vehicle position information to themonitoring station 30 for a plurality of occurrences of the vehicleremaining stationary for greater than the predetermined period. In thisembodiment, the controller 40 may associate a time with each occurrenceof the vehicle remaining stationary for greater than the predeterminedperiod. In other words, the controller time stamps the position andstationary period information.

As an example, the predetermined time which determines whether thevehicle 21 is stationary and the position should be determined, may beless than about three minutes. This time may filter out vehicle stops innormal traffic, but which will keep track of stops where the driverlikely leaves the vehicle 21. Accordingly, only the importantinformation necessary to track the vehicle need be stored and/ortransmitted thereby reducing the system costs. If the vehicle 21 isstationary overnight, for example, unnecessary position information neednot be determined, stored, and/or transmitted to the monitoring station30.

The controller 40 may comprise the memory 52 for storing the vehicleposition information therein. In one configuration, the controller 40downloads the vehicle position information from the memory 52 to themonitoring station 30 based upon a predetermined schedule. In anotherconfiguration, the controller 40 downloads the vehicle positioninformation from the memory 52 to the monitoring station 30 based upon apredetermined event. In yet another configuration, the controller 40downloads the vehicle position information from the memory 52 to themonitoring station 30 based upon a predetermined percentage of memoryusage.

Having now described certain general features and advantages of thevehicle tracking system 20, this description now turns to additionalspecific details which are provided as examples. In particular, vehicletracking system 20 preferably implements one or more of the followingfeatures:

1. Detects the vehicle being stolen and transmits a signal to themonitoring station to contact up to 3 people, for example, predeterminedby the user, of theft of the vehicle and then starts tracking thevehicle. The contact may be by one or more of the following: an e-mailmessage, a pager alert, a cellular telephone call, or other telephonecall.

2. Detects an optional vehicle security or alarm system activation andtransmits a signal to the monitoring station to contact up to 3predetermined people to inform them the vehicle's alarm is beingactivated.

3. Detects an optional vehicle alarm system's remote PANIC activationand transmits a signal to the monitoring station to contact up to 3predetermined people to inform them of the vehicle's PANIC beingactivated.

4. Detects a vehicle being programmed to operate from an unauthorizedremote transmitter, key transponder, other transponder, or other devicethat has a unique coding, and the vehicle unit transmits a signal to themonitoring station to contact up to 3 predetermined people to informthem of this occurrence. The system can also make available informationrelating to a number of such coded devices, or a change therein, or whena change occurred. A message can be sent to the user or the informationcan be available to the user on the WEB site. The vehicle would beequipped with a security system as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,654,688,for example, which determines an unauthorized transmitter and providesan alert feature. This patent is incorporated herein in its entirety byreference.

5. Detects the vehicle traveling over a predetermined speed, such as fora predetermined time, and transmits a signal to the monitoring stationto send a message, such as an e-mail informing the user (and/or others)of this occurrence. Of course, the message could also be sent via atelephone call or page, should additional urgency be required. Thevehicle's predetermined maximum speed limit and duration thereof can beselected by the user.

6. Detects a low battery voltage such as for a predetermined time andtransmits a signal to the monitoring station to contact up to 3predetermined people to inform them of vehicle's low battery voltage.This is especially advantageous during winter so that the vehicle couldbe started, for example, to prevent a problem before it happens. Thetime setting is preferably selectable by the user.

7. Detects the vehicle not moving for a predetermined time and transmitsa signal to the monitoring station to send, for example, a nightlye-mail informing the user of all the vehicle's location and stationarytime occurrences. The stationary time length is also selectable. Thismay be advantageous to encourage patrolling personnel not to remain fora long time in a same location.

8. The vehicle unit preferably includes a back-up battery system makingit more reliable.

The vehicle unit may be relatively inexpensive. In addition, themonitoring fee that includes sending up to 60 e-mails and making up to 6phone calls per month, may also be relatively low. The relatively lowmonitoring fee is based, at least in part, on the current relatively lowrates charged for use of the control channel of the cellular telephonenetwork. It is also noted that access to the control channel providescoverage for almost the entire U.S., for example.

The user or subscriber also preferably has access to an Internet sitethat will display a map and silently contact the vehicle to acquire itscurrent location, speed, direction of travel, and previous multiplelocations with speeds, for example, the user's personal identificationnumber (PIN) can be quickly activated by a telephone call. No additionalinstallation may be required.

Certain annual pre-pay package arrangements may be available. Forexample, up to 10 access entries per month can be provided on a lowmonthly billing. Up to 30 access entries could be provided also for arelatively low monthly fee.

The present invention provides a number of other significant advantagesincluding optional access from any phone or from any computer to accessthe monitoring station internet site. The user may control variousvehicle functions remotely via the telephone or the internet site. Theonly charge may be for additional equipment and installation.

Additional features can also be included with the system and subscribedto by the user in accordance with the invention. For example, theseinclude Hijack, Car Finding, Unlock Doors and Unauthorized TransmitterAlert Features. The equipment and installation is relativelyinexpensive. For the hijack feature: from any phone or computer, theuser may activate vehicle starter interrupt and sound the horn until thevehicle is retrieved (Command 4).

For the Car Finding feature: from any phone or computer, the user mayactivate the vehicle's horn, or siren and sound same for 30 seconds.This allows the user to find his vehicle in a crowded parking lot(Command 5).

For the Lock/Unlock vehicle doors feature: from any phone or computer apredetermined command (Command 7) activates unlocking of vehicle doorsto retrieve keys, for example, that may have been accidentally lockedinside the vehicle. Of course, the system can also be used to lockvehicle doors if this was forgotten (Command 6). The unauthorizedtransmitter alert feature is similarly selected as described above.

In addition, a remote vehicle start feature may also be provided, suchas to start the vehicle's engine to heat or cool the vehicle prior toentry. The equipment and installation for remote starting may berelatively low. Some further details of a specific embodiment of thevehicle tracking unit 25 are provided below as relating to use of redand green LED indicators as may be coupled to the controller 40 andoperated thereby. Also various representative wires, designated bycolor, are provided as an example embodiment.

The red LED verifies the GPS receiving signal. With a yellow wire havingpositive 12 volts, the red LED blinking indicates searching GPSlocation, constant indicates found location, and off indicates no GPSsignal found. With the yellow wire not having positive 12 volts, if thered LED is off, the LED is not functioning.

The green LED verifies receiving the cell tower signal. With the yellowwire having positive 12 volts, blinking indicates the cell controlchannel signal is detected, constant indicates sending a micro burstsignal (LED stays on 5 seconds after each transmission), and offindicates no cell tower signal received. With the yellow wire not havingpositive 12 volts, off indicates the green LED is not functioning.

An example of representative DIP switch feature selection is as follows.A first switch may be used for adding the orange wire for controllingarm/disarming of the system. When on, the orange wire controlsarm/disarm as follows: to arm, the orange wire is grounded and theyellow wire does not have 12 volts positive. To disarm, the orange wireis not grounded. When the first switch is off, then only the yellow wirecontrols arm/disarm as follows: to arm, the yellow wire is without 12volts positive, and 30 seconds after continued arm mode then the orangewire activates a constant 500 ma grounded output to operate an externalstarter interrupt relay until the system is disarmed. To disarm, theyellow wire is connected to 12 volts positive.

A main 5-pin plug may be provided on the vehicle unit and connected asfollows:

1. The Red Wire is connected to the 12 vdc power. An alert warning “E”is given if the system is armed and the battery voltage becomes lowerthan 11 volts for longer than ## minutes. This alert feature “E” willnot operate again until the voltage is above 12 volts to re-set thisfeature.

2. The black wire is connected to ground.

3. The yellow wire is connected to the ignition 12 volts so that if thekey is on, 12 volts is supplied thereto and if the key is off, theyellow wire is connected to ground. Further: if the system is in anarmed mode and the Lat/Long changes, then Alert “A” is given. If thesystem is disarmed and within 2.5 seconds after the yellow wire receives12 volts and the gray wire detects 3 or more positive pulses the systemactivates Alert “D”. If the first DIP switch is in the off positionthen: if 12 volts is on yellow wire, the system is disarmed and theorange wire discontinues from the 500 ma ground, and if the yellow wiresees ground or neutral, then the system is armed and 30 seconds afterthe continued arm mode the orange wire activates a constant 500 magrounded output to operate an external starter interrupt relay until thesystem is disarmed.

4. The gray wire is for input and output, and can be connected to analarm siren or horn positive terminal. In addition:

a. With the system armed and if the gray wire detects +12 v pulsingon/off or on constant for more than 10 seconds from an alarm siren orhorn honking activation, then alert warning “B” alarm activation isgiven.

b. With system disarmed and if the gray wire detects +12 v pulsingon/off or on constant for more than 10 seconds from an alarm siren orhorn honking activation, then alert warning “C” panic activation isgiven.

c. With system disarmed and if the Gray wire detects 3 or more 12 voltpositive pulses within 2.5 seconds of yellow wire receiving +12 v andthe gray wire by-pass not being activated, then alert warning “D” isgiven.

d. The gray wire bypass operates as follows:

i. After alert warning “B” bypass all future alert “B” signals untilsystem is disarmed.

ii. After alert warning “C” bypass all future Alert “C” signals untilsystem is armed.

iii. After alert warning “D” bypass all future alert “D” signals untilno 12 volt pulses are detected on the gray wire within 3 seconds of theyellow wire having 12 volts.

e. With the system armed or disarmed. The Output: Internal +12 v, 1 amptransistor with pulses 1 second on and 1 seconds off to activate sirenor honk car horn or flashing light relay.

i. Non-stop activation from (Command “4”)

ii. 30-second activation from (Command “5”)

f. Turn off the above alert “A” from (Command “1”).

5. The orange wire is for the starter interrupt and arm/disarm system,and operates as follows:

a. If first DIP switch is in the:

i. On position and: the orange wire has 12 volts or neutral, the systemswitches to the disarmed mode; the orange wire is grounded, then thesystem is switched to the armed mode; and the starter interrupt outputwill not automatically operate. It can only be activated from “Command#4”

ii. Off position and the orange wire does not effect the arming ordisarming of the system; 30 seconds after system arms the orange wirewill automatically activate constant 500 ma ground until the system isdisarmed. And from “command #4”. Connect to Starter interrupt relayoutput.

b. Command 4 activates Orange wire to have 500 ma. negative untilCommand 1 is received.

c. After Alert warning “B” is activated the first time it is thereafterbypassed while the orange wire remains grounded. Alert warning “B” isre-set to operate again 3 seconds after orange wire becomes ungrounded.

The vehicle unit may also include a Door Lock Plug configured asfollows, for example. A green wire provides a 250 ma, negative 1 secondpulse for Lock Doors. (Command “6”). A red wire provides a constant 12 voutput from the red power wire. A blue wire provides a 250 ma., negative1 second pulse for Unlock Doors (Command “7”). A pink wire provides a250 ma., negative 1 second pulse for remote Car Starter (Command “2”).

An installation test button may also be provided to work as follows.Pressing the button activates the orange wire for 10-seconds (starterinterrupt), with these circuits in sequence. First, it activates thegray wire for 1-second (siren/horn). After the first stops, it activatesthe green wire for 1 second to lock the doors. After the second stops,it activates the blue wire for 1 second to unlock the doors. After thethird stops, it activates the pink wire for 1 second to activate anoptional item.

Representative warning alerts are as follows:

1. Alert Warning “A” (FIG. 4): Automatic activation of “Command 8” andthe vehicle unit contacts monitoring station to instantly call 3 phonenumbers with the message “Your Vehicle is stolen please confirm thencall 911 to advise police of web site and your pin so police can locatethe vehicle”. This is detected with the system armed and the GPSindicating movement. Bypasses all future alert warning “A” signals untilthe system is re-armed.

2. Alert Warning “B” (FIGS. 5A-5C): the vehicle unit contacts themonitoring station to instantly call 3 phone numbers with the followingmessage “Vehicle alarm activated please confirm”. This is with thesystem armed and detecting gray wire having 12 volts pulsing or onconstant for longer than 10-seconds. After alert warning “B” isactivated the first time, it is thereafter bypassed while the orangewire remains grounded. Alert warning “B” is re-set to operate again 3seconds after orange wire becomes ungrounded.

3. Alert Warning “C” (FIG. 6): the vehicle unit contacts the monitoringstation to instantly send e-mail message “vehicle was traveling fasterthan your preset amount of “###” and time limit of “##” seconds.Indicates the vehicle speed and location that the speeding started andhow long speeding accrued” (Detected from GPS). This aspect is furtherunderstood with reference to the enclosed flowchart 84 of FIG. 6.

4. Alert Warning “D” (FIG. 7): the vehicle unit contacts the monitoringstation to instantly call 3 phone numbers with the message “Unauthorizedremote transmitter was just programmed to operate your vehicle.” This iswith the system disarmed and the Gray wire detecting three or more 12volt pulses within 2.5 seconds of the yellow wire having seen 12 voltspositive. All future alerts “D” are bypassed until no 12 volt pulses aredetected on the gray wire within 3 seconds of the yellow wire seeing 12volts. This aspect is further understood with reference to the enclosedflowchart 85 of FIG. 7.

5. Alert Warning “E” (FIG. 8): the vehicle unit contacts the monitoringstation to instantly call 3 phone numbers with the message “Vehicle haslow battery voltage and system has changed to low voltage mode”. This iswith the system armed and detecting the Red wire with lower than 11volts for ## minutes. All future alerts “E” are bypassed until, first,more than 13.5 volts are detected on the red wire and, second, after theyellow wire stops having positive voltage the red wire then must detectmore than 12 volts.

The following are representative commands for use in the system:

Command 1: Reset all circuits and system remains asleep until theignition key is turned on. Resets the triggered mode and unit is asleepto prevent power drain on vehicle battery.

Command 2: (Accessory activation) monitoring station Command to thesystem to activate Pink wire to pulse 250 ma negative for 1 second.

Command 3: (Vehicle Location) Web site to indicate present location andpast events in memory.

Command 4: (Hijack or Stolen) monitoring station Command to vehiclesystem to activate:

a. Gray wire to pulse 1 sec on/1 sec off with 1 amp positive output andwhich continues until receive command #1.

b. Orange wire to have 500 ma ground and which continues until receivecommand #1.

Command 5: (Car Find) monitoring station Command to system activatingGray wire for 30 seconds pulsing 1 sec on/1 sec off with 1 amp positiveoutput.

Command 6: (Lock Doors) monitoring station Command to system activatingGreen wire to pulse 1 second with 250 ma negative.

Command 7: (Unlock Doors) monitoring station Command to system toactivate Blue wire to pulse 1 second with 250 ma negative.

Command 8: (Start Constant Vehicle Tracking) sends previous 2 events inmemory and then every 120 seconds get update of location informationsent to the Web site.

The system is also operable in a battery saver mode which operates asfollows:

1. With the ignition key off, if the battery voltage drops below 11.5volts for more than 5 seconds, the GPS verification wakes up to look:

a. Once instantly.

b. Once in 1 hour if at the same location.

c. Once in 6 hours if at the same location.

d. Once in 12 hours if at the same location.

e. Once every 24 hours if at the same location.

f. Activate alert “E” when the battery saver mode is activated, andbypass sending all future Alert “E” until the battery voltage goes above13 volts for 10 minutes to reset this feature.

Another aspect of the invention relates to automatic vehicle alerte-mails sent containing some or all of the previous system events. Thissending can be triggered as follows:

a) At a user selected predetermined time ## (01-24) of each day, or

b) At a predetermined memory fill level, such as full or near full.

In addition, each system event may contain one or more of the following:

a) Vehicle Location

b) Vehicle total time at location

c) Time of day

d) Mph traveling

e) Total time traveling above MPH

f) Direction traveling

g) Delta

h) Special Alert messages, if any, including:

i) GPS signal not received for longer than 5 minutes.

ii) Traveling above ###MPH for ## minutes.

iii) Vehicle is stolen.

iv) Alarm activated.

v) Unauthorized remote transmitter alert.

vi) Battery saver mode activated

vii) Command 1: Reset all circuits and system remains asleep until theignition key is turned on.

viii) Command 2: (Accessory activation)

ix) Command 3: (Vehicle Location was retrieved)

x) Command 4: (Hijack or Stolen mode activated)

xi) Command 5: (Car Find mode activated)

xii) Command 6: (Locked Doors)

xiii) Command 7: (Unlocked Doors)

xiv) Command 8: (Started 2-second incremental Vehicle Tracking)

Another feature of the invention relates to the selectable thresholdconditions causing an event to be recorded into the memory of thevehicle unit. For example, this may include: while the yellow wire has12 volts, record events every “??” default 15 minutes time if the GPSlocation has changed. If the GPS location is the same then only updatestationary total time. If the GPS antenna is not receiving any signalthen enter last known GPS location and with an indication that this wasthe last known GPS location before the GPS signal stopped, how long noGPS signal was received, and the GPS location in the on-hold file, whenthe vehicle is traveling above ### MPH for ##-minutes.

The monitoring station may also provide a number of automated phonecalls as described above. These may include:

1. The user's vehicle has issued a stolen alert:

a. If vehicle is stolen, after receiving the phone message the user thencalls 911 to advise police of the theft, and gives the police the Website address and an identification number, such as the user's PIN, toallow the police to locate where your vehicle has been, where it is nowand keep tracking it until the police can retrieve the vehicle.

b. If this is a false alert due to vehicle being towed away for service,for example, then the user may press “1” to put the vehicle in an offmode. Once the ignition key is turned on again the system will resetback to its normal operation mode.

2. The user's vehicle has issued an alarm activated for more than 10seconds alert. The system will not respond to this alert again untilignition key is turned on again to reset this feature.

3. The vehicle battery voltage is low or has been disconnected. Thetracking system is in low voltage mode. The system will not respond tothis alert again until the battery voltage goes above 13 volts for 10minutes to reset this feature.

The backup battery may be sized according to the GPS receiver andprocessing power draw. In addition, the battery may also be sized basedupon estimated micro burst transmitting power draw. Such transmissionsare typically at about 3 watts power to the antenna.

The system according to the invention including the vehicle unit andmonitoring station provides a number of significant advantages andfeatures. For example, the police may be directly contacted by the userwhen the vehicle is stolen. The user receives the telephone message fromthe monitoring station 30, and this is done without requiring theintervention of a manual security monitoring operator, such as an ADToperator, for example. In addition, once in the stolen mode, the vehicleunit will periodically continue to send out its location, so that thepolice may track the vehicle via the WEB, for example. This locationsending feature may begin immediately, that is, without requiring theuser to contact the vehicle to begin tracking. Having the vehiclecontacting the monitoring station 30 is considerably less expensive thanother schemes where the vehicle is periodically polled via the cellularnetwork, for example.

The system may also be interfaced to a breath alcohol sensor at thevehicle, for example, and this information recorded in memory. Theinformation could be passed along to the monitoring station 30, which,in turn, could send out a notification message (e-mail or telephone)that the vehicle is being operated by a driver who may be impaired byalcohol. The vehicle's location could then be tracked to permit thepolice to detain the driver.

Another aspect of the unit is that it may be able to recognize thedesirability to bypass certain security breach triggers or other events.For example, a car finding feature can be provided that will allow theuser to sound the horn or siren when near the vehicle to help locate thevehicle, as in a crowded parking area. Without the bypass feature, theunit could recognize the horn or siren as a security breach and transmitsuch information to the monitoring center. In accordance with thisaspect of the invention, the unit would recognize the car findingfeature was activated and thereby bypass sending a security breachtransmission, for example. Again, false alarms and unneeded usage andexpense of the communications infrastructure would be avoided.

Yet another aspect of the invention relates to thwarting a would-bethief who attempts to disable the alarm by cutting the battery cable orpower supplied to the system. The unit preferably includes a back-upbattery. More particularly, upon being in an armed mode and sensing abreach of security, such as the hood opening, for example, the unit willsend out a signal indicating the alarm or security breach and while thealarm is indicated, if the battery is disconnected then the unit willsend out a message indicating the vehicle is stolen, and also providingthe vehicle's current position. Accordingly, the would-be thief is notable to defeat the security system by quickly disrupting power to theunit during an alarm indication or security breach. Also, to preventadditional alerts, this message is prevented from being transmittedagain until the user returns to the vehicle to disarm the system and/orturn on the ignition so that the unit sees a voltage above 13 volts,indicating the vehicle has started using the owner's ignition key. Thisaspect is further understood with reference to the enclosed flowchart 80(FIG. 4).

Still another aspect of the invention relates to how the unit candiscriminate between ordinary usage or honking of the horn as comparedto a security system triggered alarm. Most vehicle security systems willprovide a pattern of horn soundings as an alarm indication, and this canbe determined and used to reduce false alarm transmissions from theunit. For example, the unit can look at the number of leading andtrailing edges of the power pulse used to sound the horn. A singlepressing of the horn switch by the user will cause two edges within apredetermined time, such as about 10 to 12 seconds. Accordingly, theunit can be configured to not send a security breach transmission to thecontrol center based upon detecting two transitions. Since a number ofvehicle security systems may have a continuous sounding of the hornwithin the predetermined time, the unit can send the transmission upondetecting only a single transition.

A number of other vehicle security systems provide a series of pulses orhorn soundings within the predetermined time. Accordingly, the unit mayalso be configured to send a security breach transmission upon detectinggreater than a predetermined number of transitions, such as greater thannine, for example. This number is also typically higher than a userwould generate honking the horn several times within the predeterminedtime. In other terms, the number of transitions of the horn pulses canbe counted, and if equal to one, or greater than nine, for example, thetransmission is triggered, and otherwise the sounding of the horn isignored. Also, to prevent additional alerts, this message is preventedfrom being transmitted again until the user returns to the vehicle todisarm the system and/or turn on the ignition so that the unit sees avoltage above 13 volts, indicating the vehicle has started using theowner's ignition key. This aspect is further understood with referenceto the enclosed flowcharts 81-83 (FIGS. 5A-5C).

Yet another feature of the invention relates to a low vehicle batteryalert. For example, the unit may monitor the battery voltage over apredetermined time such as ten minutes. The ten minute window preventsfalse tripping, for example, when the voltage dips during enginecranking. In particular, the voltage can be sensed and it can bedetermined whether it is greater than zero (e.g. greater than six volts)and less than a high value (e.g. eleven or twelve volts), and, if so, alow battery voltage transmission can be communicated to the monitoringstation 30, and ultimately to the vehicle user when away from thevehicle 21. If the vehicle is being serviced and the battery 61 isdisconnected, this will cause the battery voltage to be equal to zero.Then, the low battery voltage transmission will not be communicated tothe monitoring station 30. Also, to prevent additional alerts, thismessage is prevented from being transmitted again until the user returnsto the vehicle to disarm the system and/or turn on the ignition so thatthe unit sees a voltage above 13 volts, indicating the vehicle hasstarted using the owner's ignition key. Again, false triggerings arereduced. This aspect is further understood with reference to theenclosed flowchart 86 (FIG. 8).

Yet another advantageous feature of some embodiments of the inventionrelates to the ability to conserve electrical power. More particularly,when the vehicle is stopped and in the armed mode, the GPS receiver maybe periodically operated to determine the vehicle position. If thevehicle position changes, this is indicative that the vehicle is beingmoved or stolen. For example, the GPS receiver may be operated togenerate new vehicle position information every 29 seconds. Theserelatively quick successive position determinations or readings aregenerally termed hot start. These are relatively less complicated than acold start position determination which takes longer, since the coldstart position determination requires greater time to acquire andreceive data from multiple satellites, as will be appreciated by thoseskilled in the art.

Unfortunately, this relatively high repeated usage of the GPS receivermay cause unnecessary battery drain, especially when the vehicle is leftarmed and unattended by the user for an extended period. Accordingly,the power conserving feature of the invention permits the GPS receiverto be turned off when the vehicle is in the armed mode, and the GPSreceiver is turned on only when needed. For example, a vehicle sensor,such as a shock sensor, motion sensor, ignition sensor, door sensor, orother sensor, or combinations thereof could be used to start the GPSreceiver. This sensor could also be used to trigger an alarm if desired;however it need not be so used in all embodiments. The GPS receiver,once turned on, could operate in the normal periodic fashion asdescribed above, or for a fixed period of time. The GPS receiver couldalso be turned off again after some predetermined time if no furthersensor signal is received, or if the position fails to change onsubsequent position readings or determinations.

Yet another feature relates to permitting more colorful audible alertmessages to be generated for the user. The user can, in someembodiments, access an internet site to type or enter the text for amessage to be sent, such as to alert the user that his vehicle is beingstolen. The audible message then communicated by a telephone call to theuser is generated by a speech message synthesizer based upon the enteredtext. In accordance with this aspect of the invention, the user couldtype in phonetically spelled words or phrases, such as to create morecolorful messages including slang terms, various accents, and/or tomimic various dialects, for example. The speech synthesizer would thengenerate the desired message customized for the user. Of course, thesystem could also permit the user to test or preview the pronunciationgenerated by the speech message synthesizer based on the entered textmessage prior to its adoption.

Another aspect relates to requesting GPS position information from avehicle. If a command is sent downstream to the vehicle requesting thatGPS information in turn be sent upstream from the vehicle, and the GPSinformation is not received within a predetermined time, such as aboutfour minutes, then another command may be sent to the vehicle requestingthe GPS information. This may keep repeating until GPS information isreceived, for a predetermined number of tries, or until a user instructsstopping of the requests. This helps to ensure and confirm theactivation and reception of GPS tracking coordinates from the vehicle.

Yet another aspect relates to reducing a frequency with which GPSinformation is sent from the vehicle. More particularly, the unit may beconfigured to activate GPS information transmission upstream every 2minutes. To reduce system usage expense and power consumption at thevehicle, this rate of transmission of GPS information could beprogressively decreased over time. For example, in one embodiment, uponactivation the GPS location signals could be sent every 2 minutes duringthe first hour, then once an hour for the next 23 hours, after whichonly one signal would be sent per day.

Turning now to the flowchart 87 of FIG. 9, still another aspect relatesto warning the user of an inoperable or malfunctioning GPS or cellulartelephone section. More particularly, if the GPS or cellular telephoneantenna wire is cut or the mounting position of either is changedcausing the antenna to stop receiving the signal the user would notordinarily know of this problem quickly. In accordance with oneembodiment, if the ignition is turned on a predetermined number oftimes, such as about three, and each time ignition turns on if no GPS orno cell signal is received for a minimum time, such as about 15 to 30minutes or longer, an audible warning beeper may be activated in thevehicle. This beeper may be sounded once every 15 minutes. At anytime ifthe GPS or cell signal is received properly then the system re-setsautomatically stopping the beeper sound.

As an example, if the ignition key is turned on and no GPS or no Cellsignal is being received for 15-minutes, and the vehicle ignition stayson for 45-minutes and there is still no GPS or no cell signal, the unitcounts one. Thereafter, if the ignition key is turned on and no GPS orno cell signal is being received for 15-minutes, and the vehicleignition stays on for 60-minutes and there is still no GPS or no cellsignal, a second count is determined. Thereafter, if the ignition isturned on and no GPS or no cell signal is received for 10-minutes, andthe vehicle ignition stays on for only 10-minutes and there is still noGPS or no cell signal, no count is determined. Thereafter, if theignition is turned on and no GPS or no cell signal is being received for15-minutes, a third count is determined and the beeper is activated asdescribed above. This beeping may continue every 15-minutes while thevehicle ignition stays on as long as the vehicle ignition stays on for16-minutes and still no GPS or no Cell signal is being received. Ifthereafter, the ignition is turned on and no GPS or no cell signal isbeing received, the beeper beeps once and again beeps once every15-minutes while vehicle ignition stays on. If in 10-minutes both GPS orcell signal is being received, the beeper system is turned off and thewarning count is reset.

By way of example, if the ignition key is turned on and no GPS or nocell signal is being received for only 5, 10 or 12 minutes (with thethreshold set at 15 minutes), then no count is determined.

In certain circumstances, the GPS signal may fail, but the cell signalmay still be working. Accordingly, it may be desirable to send anindication of the failure of the GPS signal to the central monitoringstation 30 to thereby alert the user as described above. If the cellsignal also failed, or if the cell signal failed by itself, in otherembodiments a separate paging device would transmit the failure or lossof the cell signal information to the central monitoring station 30, tothereby alert the user.

Yet another feature is directed to efficient use of a relatively smallnumber of codes available to communicate with the tracking unit from thecellular network and central station. More particularly, a typicalarrangement may provide eight basic codes and two “wildcard” codes. Thetwo wildcard codes are reserved for future or other uses. A particulartracking device will respond directly to any of the eight basic codes.For example, the doors could be locked or unlocked, a present locationdownloaded from the vehicle, etc.

In accordance with this feature, the tracking device may responddifferently to the same code or command depending upon the state orcondition of the tracking device. For example, if an alarm is triggeredat the vehicle, it may be desired that the tracking device continue tosend the alarm signal until confirmation is received that the centralmonitoring station 30 has received the alarm signal. This confirmationcan be sent using the same code as may provide another function if thedevice were not indicating an alarm. Any of a number of such trackingdevice conditions may trigger a different message to be interpreted fromthe received code. For example, if any of the above Alerts A-E weretriggered, the receipt of a predetermined code, such as code eight,would confirm receipt of the alert by the central station, and thisreceipt of code eight would not cause the other response (no alarmtriggered) in the tracking device. Of course this concept can beextended to other features as will be appreciated by those skilled inthe art.

In accordance with another feature, the rate of sending the location orposition data (or change in position data) from the vehicle may bevaried to reduce system usage and thereby reduce expenses. Moreparticularly, in one embodiment, the rate of sending may be based uponhow long the vehicle has remained stationary. This time period may beselected by the user. For example, the selected time may be in the rangeof 15 minutes to six hours. If the vehicle has been stationary for theselected time period, then the rate of transmission may be reduced. Thisreduces or eliminates the need to send home position data and send allthe over 15-minute stops made that day. Otherwise, that is when thevehicle is moving, the device may send data at a faster rate. Of course,a system user would not likely be interested in quick updates,especially where the position information is not changing. Conversely,if the vehicle is being moved, it may be desirable to receive morefrequent position updates.

Another variation of this transmission rate conservation feature basesthe rate of transmission on the vehicle position. For example, a reducedrate of transmission may be selected if the vehicle is in apredetermined area where the user has a lesser interest in quicklyupdated position information. The user may also have a reduced interestin an area that can be defined outside of a predetermined distance froma reference point.

Yet another variation of the vehicle position transmission rateconservation feature is based upon the vehicle's speed, such as thevehicle's average or maximum speed, for example. Accordingly, if thevehicle is traveling above a preset speed, the rate of transmission maybe increased.

In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the tracking devicemay send the alert indication a predetermined number of times withoutreceiving an acknowledgment as described above, and then wait until thevehicle position has changed before trying again or the cellre-registers or its RSS (received signal strength) changes. Thus, poweris conserved. When the vehicle has moved to a new position, anyobstructions may no longer be present thereby increasing the likelihoodof a successful communication. In addition, the change in position maybe determined when the vehicle is sensed to be moving about apredetermined relatively small speed, such as greater than 1 mph, forexample.

In all of the embodiments and variations described herein, the trackingdevice may communicate with one or more other vehicle devices via avehicle data communications bus. Further aspects of interfacing with avehicle data communications bus are described in U.S. Pat. Nos.5,719,551 and 6,011,460 assigned to the assignee of the presentinvention.

Yet another aspect relates to efficient use of available codes on thecellular telephone control channel. In one particular example, ten codesmay be available to be transmitted from the monitoring station 30 to thevehicle trackers. The first eight or nine codes are command codes thatwill cause a specific action by the tracking device at the vehicle. Theother one or two codes may be wildcard codes as mentioned above, thatmay set a stand-by mode for one or a group of vehicles, for example.

It may be desirable to provide more than eight commands at the vehicleresponsive to the corresponding eight available codes. For example, itmay be desirable to set a feature on or off, or to set a differentfeature setting or threshold. In accordance with this aspect of theinvention, the commands at the tracker are determined based upon aseries of different command codes being received within a predeterminedtime window.

For example, the monitoring station 30 may send code 9 that switches thetracker in the car into a stand-by mode for a predetermined time andwhich causes the tracker to respond with an upstream confirmation code 7or 9 indicating receiving code 9. During the predetermined time of thestand-by mode another code follows that causes a system programmablefeature or setting to change. Note that the second code would otherwisecause a different function at the vehicle. Note that system mightoperate a function 9 if another code 1-9 is not received in thepredetermined time. The following list is exemplary for featuresresulting from second codes 1-9:

(1) Code 1—Tracker will turn off feature of upstream code caused byvehicle alert being detected.

(2) Code 2—Tracker will turn on feature of upstream code caused byvehicle alert being detected.

(3) Code 3—Tracker deactivates cell receiver from operating due to anon-paying customer for monitoring service. That phone number can thenbe allocated to another customer.

(4) Code 4—Turn on audio buzzer feature that will sound once each 10minutes. The monitoring station 30 need only send the command toactivate the feature, as the tracker will time the period and drive thebuzzer thereafter. The monitoring station 30 will normally not need tosend this command because the tracker will be configured out of the boxwith this feature activated to sound the buzzer every 10 minutes untilthe next command is received.

(5) Code 5—Turn off the audio buzzer. This is to be sent by themonitoring station 30 after a user has successfully activated hisaccount.

(6) Code 6—Turn on the 80 mph speed limit reporting. This will normallynot be sent as this feature will be the default setting of the tracker.

(7) Code 7—Turn off the 80 mph speed limit reporting.

(8) Code 8—Increase speed limit 5 mph and increase the time 5 minutes.

(9) Code 9—Decrease speed limit 5 mph and decrease the time 5 minutes,and wait 5 minutes if another code number follows. It could operate thisway to allow another set of codes to change more features.

In this example, in response to the tracker receiving the system code1-9, the tracker sends an upstream code 7 to acknowledge receipt of thesystem code 1-9. Upon receipt of code 9 the tracker waits up to 5minutes to determine if another system code is received. If no code isreceived, then the tracker performs the code 9 operation. Of course, inother embodiments other features or settings can be selected.

In general, it may be preferred that the first code sent in a series oftwo codes, for example, be a code that causes only a minor function tobe performed at the vehicle. This is so because if the second code issent from the monitoring station 30, but not received at the tracker,only a minor function is performed. For example, the first code mayswitch between armed and disarmed modes. This is in contrast to using aremote engine starting code or engine shutdown code as the first code.The vehicle may be moving or positioned in a marginal reception area,and the second command may not be received by the tracker within thepredetermined time window. As will be appreciated by those skilled inthe art, this concept of multiple digit codes, can be extended beyondtwo digits to three or more.

To further conserve cellular transmissions and as described above, thetracker may be set to record a position based upon a determined event.Only this recorded position information may be downloaded either by userrequest or at set times. It is desired that such events be relativelyfew, but that the information still be helpful to the user.

For example, an event for recording of position may be determined basedupon the vehicle being stopped for greater than a first time and lessthan a second time. For example, the first time may be 15 minutes andthe second time may be 6 hours. Determination of the vehicle beingstopped can be made based upon one or both of the GPS position or thevehicle ignition being turned off. The second time prevents therecording of position information when the vehicle is stopped at theowner's home during the evening, for example. Accordingly, the importantinformation of the vehicle stops being made is recorded and madeavailable to the user, while system communications resources areconserved.

In another example, if the mode is selected to send the vehicle'slocation every 10 min and the vehicle is in the same location forgreater than a set time, then no more vehicle locations are sent untilthe vehicle location has changed to start the every 10 min reportingagain.

Turning now additionally to FIG. 10, operation of the vehicle trackingunit 25 for providing direction deviation tracking will now generally bedescribed. More particularly, beginning at Block 100, when the vehicletracking unit 25 is placed in an armed or tracking mode (Block 101) toprovide constant tracking, the vehicle tracking unit may determine andsend the vehicle position information at predetermined intervals, forexample, as described above. For example, the vehicle tracking unit 25may be placed in the armed mode when the vehicle 21 is stolen to allowthe police and/or a user to maintain current vehicle positioninformation, such as by overlaying the vehicle position information on amap using a mapping program.

Yet, one difficulty which may be encountered with prior art trackingapproaches which transmit vehicle position information based solely upona predetermined schedule is that it may take a relatively long time fordirection changes of the vehicle 21 to be determined. That is, if a carthief turned at a stop light shortly after vehicle position informationwas sent, the change in direction would not be discovered until the nexttime vehicle position information was sent. If the intervals betweensendings of vehicle position information are relatively long, the policemay pursue the vehicle 25 in the wrong direction.

Thus, in accordance with the present invention, the controller 40 maycooperate with the vehicle position determining device 42 to determinevehicle position information based upon the vehicle 21 changing adirection of travel by greater than a threshold, at Blocks 102 and 103.This may preferably be done in addition to sending vehicle positioninformation at predetermined intervals, for example, as will bedescribed further below. Of course, in some embodiments the vehicleposition information may simply be determined and stored for laterretrieval by the user based upon the direction changes, for example, orthis may be done in addition to sending the vehicle position informationto the monitoring station 30.

The threshold may be advantageously used to distinguish slightdeviations in direction (e.g., from small bends in the road) fromsignificant directional changes (e.g., turning at an intersection) whichwill actually be important to the police and/or user. By way of example,the threshold may be greater than about 45 degrees, although otherthresholds may also be used.

Thus, in addition to regularly updating the vehicle position informationat predetermined intervals, the police and/or user are also updated whenthe vehicle 25 changes direction. That is, the controller 40 may alsocooperate with the wireless communications device 44 to send the vehicleposition information to the monitoring station 30 based upon eachoccurrence of the vehicle 21 changing the direction of travel by greaterthan the threshold, at Block 104. It will be appreciated by those ofskill in the art that the vehicle position information may includedirection or heading information in some embodiments, although in otherembodiments basic GPS coordinate information (i.e., latitude andlongitude coordinates) could be sent and the heading informationdetermined at the monitoring station 30.

Of course, in some embodiments the controller 40 may advantageously notsend the vehicle position information to the monitoring station 30unless the vehicle 25 changes the direction of travel by greater thanthe threshold. That is, vehicle position information will not be sent atpredetermined intervals, but only when the direction of the vehicle 21changes.

As a result, wireless communications charges (e.g., cellular phonecharges) may be held to a minimum in those applications where continuousvehicle position updates are not required. By way of example, whentracking trucks, busses, etc. traveling on interstates, it may only benecessary to know when and where drivers get off of the interstate. Assuch, a significant amount of cellular phone charges may be saved by notcontinuously updating vehicle position information while such vehiclesare traveling along a known route, (i.e., an interstate).

Referring more particularly to FIG. 11, further details of the directiondeviation tracking operation according to the invention will now bedescribed. The controller 40 may determine the vehicle positioninformation based not only upon the vehicle 21 changing the direction oftravel by greater than the threshold (Block 102), but this determinationmay also optionally be based upon the vehicle then continuing in thechanged direction for greater than a predetermined period, at Block 110.By way of example, the predetermined period may be greater than aboutfive seconds and, more preferably, between about five and seven seconds,although other periods may also be used, as will be appreciated by thoseof skill in the art.

Similarly, the controller 40 may, in addition to determining the vehicleposition information based upon the vehicle 21 changing the direction oftravel by greater than the threshold, also optionally base thisdetermination upon the vehicle then continuing in the changed directionat greater than a predetermined speed, at Block 111. Preferably, thepredetermined speed may be greater than about five miles per hour (MPH),but other speeds may also be used.

As a result of the steps illustrated at Blocks 110, 111, unwanteddownloading of vehicle position information may advantageously beavoided. For example, when a vehicle makes only a temporary change indirection, such as to stop briefly at a gas station or go aroundsomething in the road, the above conditions may be used to limit thedetermination of vehicle position information. Again, this may result infurther wireless communications charge savings.

In accordance with another advantageous aspect of the invention, thecontroller 40 may also determine a value of deviation in direction, atBlock 112. For example, this value of deviation may be an angular speed,such as in degrees per second. As such, the controller 40 mayadvantageously determine the vehicle position information based upon thevalue of deviation, at Block 103.

Thus, yet another option is provided for determining whether adirectional deviation is significant and requires vehicle positioninformation to be determined or not. For example, determining angularspeed may help discriminate between the vehicle 21 taking a curvedon-ramp to a highway and simply turning slowly into a gas station for abrief stop. Of course, those of skill in the art will appreciate thatany one or all of the steps illustrated at Blocks 110-112 may be used,or combinations thereof, to adjust the frequency with which the vehicleposition information may be determined and sent for differentapplications.

As noted above, the controller 40 may include the memory 52 which maystore the vehicle position information therein (Block 113). Thecontroller 40 may download the vehicle position information from thememory 52 to the monitoring station 30 based upon at least one of apredetermined schedule, a predetermined event, and the memory reaching apredetermined capacity, as noted above, at Blocks 114 and 115.

Turning now additionally to FIG. 12, the multiple polarity outputs 53,which were generally illustrated in FIG. 2, will now be described infurther detail. More particularly, the controller 40 may include one ormore pairs 53 a, 53 b of switchable polarity output terminals which maybe used for controlling various vehicle devices. By way of example, suchvehicle devices may include an actuator 121, such as the door lockactuator 62 or a window actuator, for example, which may be used forperforming at least one of door locking and unlocking functions or atleast one of a roll up and a roll down function, respectively. Inparticular, the vehicle device may include one or more pairs of inputterminals, each pair being connected to a respective pair of outputterminals 53 a, 53 b. In certain embodiments the controller 40 mayadvantageously include a learning mode in which it detects respectiveoperating polarities of the input terminals of the vehicle device, aswill be appreciated by those of skill in the art. Accordingly, thecontroller 40 may switch the pair of output terminals 53 a, 53 b basedupon the detected operating polarities of the pair of input terminals.This learning mode may therefore save installers valuable time whichmight otherwise be required to manually match the polarities of theoutputs 53 a, 53 b with vehicle device inputs.

The controller 30, and more particularly the CPU 50, may switch the pairof switchable polarity output terminals 53 a, 53 b based upon a commandreceived by the remote transmitter 60 or by the wireless communicationsdevice 44, for example. That is, the CPU 50 provides respectiveactivation signals to a first output stage 122 a of the output terminal53 a and a second output stage 122 b of the output terminal 53 b. Inparticular, the CPU 50 may provide the activation signals substantiallysimultaneously, with the two activation signals having oppositepolarities.

The CPU 50 may preferably activate the pair of output terminals 53 a, 53b for a predetermined period, such as a few seconds to roll a window upor down, for example. On the other hand, the activation signals needonly be a few seconds in duration to allow the door lock actuator 62 toperform a door locking/unlocking function. Of course, those of skill inthe art will appreciate that any predetermined period may be used inaccordance with the present invention.

Upon applying the activation signals to the output stages 122 a, 122 b,the activation signals are then passed to respective negative andpositive switches 123 a, 124 a, and 123 b, 124 b of the output terminals53 a, 53 b. Accordingly, only one of the switches 123 a, 124 a whichcorresponds in polarity to the activation signal applied to the outputterminal 53 a will provide an output. The same is also true with theswitches 123 b, 124 b.

Thus, for example, if positive and negative activation signals areprovided to the first and second output stages 122 a, 122 b, thepositive output switch 124 a will provide an output on a first outputconnector 125 a, and the negative output switch 123 b will provide anoutput on a second output connector 125 b. In the embodiment illustratedin FIG. 12, the window actuator 121 includes a first motor 126 a forrolling a window down, and a second motor 126 b for rolling the windowup, both of which are activated based upon the polarity of signalsprovided thereto. Of course, in some embodiments an actuator 121 with asingle motor could be used, as will be appreciated by those of skill inthe art.

Accordingly, using the above example, the first motor 126 a wouldreceive a negative polarity signal from the first output connector 125 aat its negative polarity terminal, and a positive polarity signal fromthe second output connector 125 b at its positive polarity terminal. Thefirst motor 126 a will therefore be actuated, and the window will berolled down. To the contrary, the second motor 126 b will receive thenegative polarity signal from the first output connector 125 a at itspositive polarity terminal and the positive polarity signal from thesecond output connector 125 b at its negative polarity terminal, and itwill therefore not be actuated.

Referring additionally to FIG. 13, an alternate configuration isillustratively shown in which the first and second motors 126 a′, 126 b′are connected to the positive terminal of the vehicle battery 61′ sothat they are both activated by a negative polarity signal. Aspreviously described above, if opposite polarity activation signals areprovided by the CPU 50 to the first and second output stages 122 a′, 122b′, then only one of the first and second output connectors 125 a′, 125b′ will provide a negative polarity signal at a time. Thus, only one orthe other of the first and second motors 126 a′, 126 b′ will be actuatedat a time. The case in which the first and second motors 126 a″ and 126b″ are connected to the battery 61″ to be actuated by positive polaritysignals is illustratively shown in FIG. 14.

A more detailed schematic diagram illustrating the pair of outputterminals 53 a, 53 b is shown in the schematic diagram of FIG. 15. Theoutput stages 122 a and 122 b may each include a resistor, and theswitches 123 a, 124 a, 123 b, and 124 b may all be transistors (e.g.,bi-polar transistors). The output terminals may also include resistors150-153, and diodes 154-157, as illustratively shown. In the illustratedembodiment, a three-pin connector is used which includes the connectors125 a, 125 b, and an additional connector 125 c which may be used toprovide power, for example, as will be appreciated by those of skill inthe art. By way of example, the resistors 122 a, 122 b, 150, and 152 maybe 4.7 KΩ resistors, and the resistors 151, 153 may be 47 KΩ resistorsthough other values may also be used.

Accordingly, it will also be appreciated that the vehicle tracking unit25 of the present invention may advantageously require less outputterminal circuitry than in prior art vehicle tracking units, since aseparate positive and negative terminal does not have to be provided foreach motor, etc. Further, installation of the vehicle tracking unit 25of the present invention may be simplified since the amount of wiresthat have to be connected to various vehicle devices is reduced.

Another advantageous aspect of the invention will now be described withreference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 16. Beginning at Block 160, asnoted above, the vehicle tracking unit 25 may periodically determine(Block 161) and send (Block 162) vehicle position information to themonitoring station 30. Again, this may be the case when the controller40 is in the armed or tracking mode and such information has beenrequested or a predetermined event has occurred, as described above. Thecontroller 40 may detect whether a triggering event has occurred, atBlock 163, and, if so, vary a period between successive sendings ofvehicle position information based upon the triggering event (Block164).

By using a triggering event to increase the period between successivesendings of the vehicle position information, wireless (e.g., cellular)communications charges may advantageously be reduced by sending thevehicle position information less frequently. This may also result insignificantly less drain on the vehicle battery 61 and/or back-upbattery 54. On the other hand, the period between successive sendingsmay also be decreased based upon a triggering event, which may beparticularly beneficial when police are tracking the vehicle 25 after ithas been stolen, for example.

Turning more particularly to FIG. 17, the step of determining thetriggering event (Block 163 in FIG. 16) will now be described in furtherdetail. By way of example, the triggering event may include a vehiclespeed exceeding a threshold (Block 163 a), receiving a period changesignal from the monitoring station 30 (Block 163 b), the passing of time(Block 163 c), and/or the memory 52 reaching a predetermined capacity(Block 163 d).

With respect to the passage of time, a message may be sent from themonitoring station 30 to the vehicle tracking unit to prompt the sendingof vehicle position information, as previously described above. By wayof example, the initial period between sendings of vehicle positioninformation may be about two minutes. After an hour, the period betweensendings may be decreased to every fifteen minutes, and after six hoursthe period decreased to every hour. Further, after twenty four hourshave passed, the controller 40 may then increase the period betweensendings to once a day. Of course, the above periods and triggeringevents are merely exemplary, and others may be used as well, as will beappreciated by those skilled in the art.

It should be noted here that in some embodiments the visual indicator(s)43 may advantageously cooperate with the vehicle position determiningdevice 42 (e.g., a GPS device) for indicating a number of GPS satellitescurrently accessible. Similarly, the visual indicator(s) 45 maycooperate with the wireless (e.g., cellular) telephone communicationsdevice 44 for indicating communications with a cellular base station,for example.

Turning now additionally to FIGS. 18-20, another aspect of the presentinvention for using the vehicle tracking unit 25 to notify a user whenthe vehicle 21 has been removed from a predetermined area (i.e., a G.O.fence) will now be described. Beginning at Block 160, the controller 40may store a user selected reference location 180, at Block 161, anddetermine vehicle position information (Block 162) as previouslydescribed above. For example, the user selected reference location 180may be stored in the memory 52 (FIG. 2).

The user selected reference location 180 may advantageously be set inseveral ways according to the present invention. For example, thevehicle tracking unit 25 may include one or more input devices 170 to bepositioned within the vehicle 21 for setting the user selected referencelocation 180. By way of example, the input device 170 may be a switch, akeyboard, a keypad, or other suitable input device known to thoseskilled in the art.

If a keyboard or keypad is used, for example, the user could enterdesired coordinates (e.g., in latitude and longitude) of the userselected reference location 180. The input device 170 may also cooperatewith the vehicle position determining device 42 and the controller 40 toset a current vehicle position as the user selected reference location.Accordingly, a user may advantageously set the user selected referencelocation 180 to correspond to any desired position of the vehicle 21simply by driving the vehicle to that position and using the inputdevice 170.

This may be particularly advantageous when the user allows someone touse the vehicle 21 within a limited area (e.g., as with valet parking),but wants to be notified if the vehicle 21 is removed from this area. Insuch situations, the user will not want to be notified of any movementof the vehicle, as these may occur frequently if the vehicle 21 is movedaround, such as in a valet parking lot. Thus, the user may use the inputdevice 170 to set the user selectable reference location 180 at theposition where possession of the vehicle 21 is transferred, e.g., at thevalet parking drop-off location. The user may then advantageously onlybe notified if the vehicle moves beyond a radial threshold distance 181from the user selectable reference location, if desired, as will bedescribed further below.

The controller 40 may also set the user selected reference location 180based upon one or more signals provided by the monitoring station 30.For example, the controller 40 may also cooperate with the vehicleposition determining device 42 to set a current vehicle position as theuser selected reference location 180 based upon the signal(s) providedby the monitoring station 30. In addition, the at least one signal maysimply include the user selected reference location 180.

As illustratively shown at Block 163, based upon the vehicle positioninformation determined as noted above with reference to Block 162, thecontroller 40 determines whether the vehicle 21 has moved beyond aradial threshold distance 181 from the user selected reference location180. If this is the case, the controller 40 may then cause the vehicleposition information to be sent to indicate to the user that the vehicle21 has moved beyond the radial threshold distance 181.

In some embodiments, the vehicle position information may be sent athreshold time after (Block 164) the vehicle 21 moves beyond the radialthreshold distance 181 from the user selected reference location 180 ifthe vehicle has not moved back within the radial threshold distance. Byso doing, a bounded area 182 defined by the user selected referencelocation 180 and the radial threshold distance 181 may be made smallerthan with prior art approaches while still reducing unwanted falsealarms. This feature may be particularly useful in the case of cardealerships, where vehicles may occasionally be driven beyond the radialthreshold distance 181 for test drives, but will return to thedealership (i.e., within the bounded area 182) within a short time.

In accordance with the invention, the input device 170 may also permituser setting of the threshold time, or this may be done by themonitoring station 30. The radial threshold distance 181 may also be setvia the input device 170 and/or the monitoring station 30. By way ofexample, the radial threshold distance 181 may be less than about fivemiles, and the threshold time may be less than about thirty minutes,although other values may also be used in accordance with the presentinvention.

Another particularly useful aspect of the present invention will now bedescribed with reference to FIG. 21. As noted above, the vehicle 21 mayinclude the vehicle alarm indicator 67, which may include one or more ofa vehicle horn, a vehicle siren, a vehicle parking light, a vehicleheadlight, a vehicle turning direction indicator, a vehicle hazardlight, and a strobe light, for example. In accordance with this aspectof the invention, beginning at Block 190, if a user is unable to findthe vehicle 21, such as when the vehicle is parked in a crowded parkinglot, the user (or monitoring station 30) may send a vehicle finderactivation signal to the vehicle tracking unit 25, as previouslydescribed above.

Similar to some prior art vehicle tracking systems, the controller 40may then cause the vehicle alarm indicator 67 to provide an alarmindication lasting for a predetermined time (e.g., about 60 seconds orless), at Block 193, based upon the wireless communications device 44receiving the vehicle finder activation signal. As such, the vehicletracking unit 25 may therefore be used to provide an alarm indicationwhen the vehicle security controller 28 is otherwise out of range forthe uniquely coded remote transmitter 60.

Yet, one problem which may arise with prior art tracking systems is thatonce the user locates the vehicle 21, there may still be a significantamount of time left before alert indication ceases. This may beparticularly true where the predetermined time is set to be relativelylarge. Thus, if a user finds the vehicle 21 quickly, she may have tolisten to the horn sounding for a relatively long period, or startdriving away with a strobe light flashing, for example.

In accordance with the present invention, the controller 40 may alsodetermine not only whether the predetermined time has expired beforeceasing providing the alarm indication, but it may also determinewhether a user input has been received, at Block 194. Thus, thecontroller 40 may advantageously cause the vehicle alarm indicator 67 tocease providing the alarm indication, at Block 195, prior to expirationof the predetermined time based upon the user input.

As noted above, the controller 40 may be switchable between armed anddisarmed modes, and the user input may include switching the controllerfrom the armed mode to the disarmed mode. By way of example, this may bedone based upon the ignition switch 65, the remote transmitter 60, asignal received from the monitoring station 30, and/or the securitycontroller 28. Alternately, the controller 40 may switch the alarmindication off based upon the ignition switch 65, etc., irrespective ofthe current operating mode of the controller.

As discussed above with reference to FIG. 5A, the controller 40 maycooperate with the wireless communications device 44 to send an alarmindication alert to the monitoring station 30 based upon at least onevehicle sensor. More particularly, referring now to FIG. 22, beginningat Block 200 the controller 40 may determine if the vehicle sensor hasbeen activated, for example, at Block 201. By way of example, the sensormay include at least one of the alarm indicator 67 (i.e., vehicle horn,vehicle siren, etc.), a vehicle parking light, a vehicle headlight, avehicle turning direction indicator, a vehicle hazard light, a vehicledoor switch, and a vehicle dome light. Of course, other sensors may alsobe used as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art.

Once the alarm indication alert has been sent, at Block 202, thecontroller 203 may then determine whether a predetermined number ofalarm indication alerts have already been sent, at Block 203. If so, thecontroller 40 may stop the sending of further alarm indication alerts,at Block 204. By so doing, if the vehicle sensor has been falselyactivated (e.g., the alarm indicator 67 is repeatedly activated bythunder), the user need not receive numerous alarm indication alerts andmay save the wireless communications charges associated therewith. Byway of example, the predetermined number of alarm indication alerts maybe in a range of one to five, although other numbers may also be used.

Another flowchart illustrating yet further details in accordance withthis aspect of the present invention is shown in FIG. 23. In addition tothe above described steps, after determining that the predeterminednumber of alarm indication alerts have been sent, the controller 40 maythen determine whether the predetermined number thereof occurred withina predetermined time, at Block 210. If so, the controller 40 may stopsending further alarm indications until the controller is reset, atBlock 211.

More particularly, the controller 40 may be switchable between armed anddisarmed modes, as discussed above, and the controller 40 may be resetupon being switched between armed and disarmed modes. By way of example,the controller 40 may be switchable between armed and disarmed modesbased upon the ignition switch 65, based upon the vehicle sensor beingcontrolled by the remote transmitter 60, and/or based upon a signal fromthe monitoring station 30. Of course, other suitable ways of switchingthe controller 40 between armed and disarmed modes may also be used, aswill be appreciated by those of skill in the art.

Referring now to FIGS. 24 and 25, according to another related aspect ofthe present invention, beginning at Block 240 the controller 40 maycooperate with the vehicle position determining device 42 and thewireless communications device 44 to send an alert message to themonitoring station 30 based upon at least one vehicle sensor, at Blocks244, as discussed previously above. More particularly, the at least onevehicle sensor may include the ignition switch 65, the uniquely codedremote transmitter 60, or other suitable vehicle sensors noted above,for example, which may be used for switching the controller 40 betweenarmed and disarmed modes.

Thus, during normal operation, the controller 40 may cause the alertmessage to be sent when the vehicle tracking unit 25 (i.e., thecontroller 40) is in the active mode (e.g., the ignition switch 65 is inthe off position) and a triggering event occurs (e.g., the vehicle 21 ismoved), at Blocks 252-254. The normal operation is illustratively shownas concluding at Block 255 for clarity of illustration, but those ofskill in the art will appreciate that additional alert messages may besent in some embodiments. It should also be noted that in someembodiments the alert message may also be sent when the controller 40 isin the disarmed mode (as opposed to the armed mode).

By way of example, if the vehicle 21 was broken down on the side of theroad and the user had to leave the vehicle until a tow truck arrived,the user could accordingly place the controller 40 in the armed mode sohe will be alerted if the vehicle is moved. Yet, the user would not wantto receive alert messages resulting from the tow truck moving thevehicle 21, which may not only be an inconvenience but may also resultin significant wireless (e.g., cellular) communications charges for theuser.

In accordance with this aspect of the invention, the vehicle trackingunit 25 (i.e., controller 40) may also be switchable to an overridemode, at Block 242, to prevent sending of the alert message, asillustratively shown by the conclusion step at Block 245, based uponreceiving an alert override message from the monitoring station 30. Thisswitching may be performed irrespective of whether the controller 40 isin the armed mode or the disarmed mode. Using the above example, theuser may therefore cause the controller 40 to be switched to theoverride mode once the tow truck has picked up the vehicle 21 so that hewill no longer receive the alert indication.

Of course, the override mode may be disengaged, at Block 256, once theuser wants to start receiving alert messages again. By way of example,the controller 40 may disengage the override mode based upon the vehicleignition switch 65 being switched between on and off positions, and moreparticularly from the off to the on position (i.e., the next time theuser starts the vehicle 21). Additionally, an override disengage messagemay also be sent from the monitoring station 30 to the vehicle trackingunit 25, and the controller 40 may cooperate with the wirelesscommunications device 44 to receive the override disengage message anddisengage the override mode based thereon.

Also, the controller 40 may disengage the override mode based upon anoperable vehicle device being controlled by the remote transmitter 60,as discussed previously above. Again, the operable vehicle device mayinclude at least one of a vehicle alarm device (e.g., the securitycontroller 28), a keyless entry device and/or the door lock actuator 62,the engine starter interrupt device 66, and the remote starter device63, for example. If the override mode is not disengaged, no furtheralert messages may be sent (Block 257), but if it is then normaloperation may resume as described above.

As previously noted, the monitoring station 30 may include a userinterface for accepting at least one command from a user and sending atleast one alert to the user, such as the Internet interface 34 and/orthe telephone network interface 33, for example (FIG. 3). Of course, insome embodiments the monitoring station 30 may also be a user'scomputer, telephone, personal data assistant (PDA), or other suitabledevice which may send/receive signals directly to/from the vehicletracking unit 25 via a wireless communications network, for example.

Referring now to FIGS. 26-28, in accordance with yet another aspect ofthe present invention the vehicle tracking unit 25 may further include asecurity device detection circuit 260 for at least one vehicle securitydevice, such as the alarm indicator 67, for example. As illustrativeshown, the security device detection circuit 260 may be connected to thecontroller 40, and the controller may cooperate with the wirelesscommunications device 44 and the security device detection circuit forsending security signals to the monitoring station 30 based upon thesecurity device detection circuit, at Block 271.

By way of example, the controller 40 may cause the security signals tobe sent to the monitoring station 30 based upon the security devicedetection circuit 260 detecting that the alarm indicator 67 has beenactivated. It should be noted that although the security devicedetection circuit 260 is illustratively shown as being separate from thecontroller 40 in FIG. 26, this circuitry may well be included within thecontroller in some embodiments, or even implemented in software to berun on the CPU 50, for example, as will be appreciated by those of skillin the art.

As previously noted above, the vehicle tracking unit 25 in accordancewith the present invention may advantageously receive one or morecommand signals (Block 272) (e.g., from the remote transmitter 60 and/orthe monitoring station 30) and perform corresponding vehicle functionsbased thereon. For example, the command signals may include car findcommand signals for causing the vehicle security controller 28 toactivate the alarm indicator 67 and/or remote start command signals forcausing the remote start device 63 to start the vehicle 21.

Yet, one problem which may be encountered when the controller 40 causessuch functions to be implemented is that by causing the alarm indicator67 to be turned on so that the user can locate the vehicle 21, thesecurity device detection circuit 260 will detect the activationthereof. Thus, the controller 40 will be prompted to send a securitysignal to the user, even though the user was the one who sent the carfind command signal. The same may also be the case with a remote startcommand signal, which may otherwise cause the security controller 28 todetermine that the vehicle 21 is being stolen and trigger the alarmindicator 67.

As such, in accordance with this aspect of the present invention, thecontroller 40 may perform the at least one predetermined vehiclefunction while bypassing sending the security signals, i.e., bypassingthe security device detection circuit 260, at Block 273. Once thefunction has been performed, at Block 274, then the normal sending ofsecurity signals may resume. Accordingly, even though performing the atleast one vehicle function may otherwise activate the alarm indicator67, for example, the vehicle tracking unit 25 may advantageously avoidsending unwanted security signals to the user, which may result in asignificant savings in wireless communications costs.

Once again, the controller 40 may be switchable between armed anddisarmed modes, and the controller may perform the at least onepredetermined vehicle function based upon receiving the correspondingcommand signal via the wireless communications device while in the armedmode, at Block 280. The controller 40 may also cease bypassing thesecurity device detection circuit 260 based upon a predetermined input,or after a predetermined period, at Block 281. More particularly, thepredetermined period could be measured from the time when thecorresponding command signal is received, or from the time thecorresponding vehicle function is completed, for example.

By way of example, the predetermined input may include switching theignition switch 65 between on and off positions, or a deactivation ofthe at least one security device (i.e., the alarm indicator 67). Use ofthe predetermined period may be particularly advantageous in the case ofremote starting the vehicle 21, in which case the function of startingthe vehicle may last a relatively short time but the alarm indicator 67,if activated, could continue to provide an alert for much longer.Accordingly, the predetermined period could be set to be slightly longerthan the time which the security controller 28 is programmed to activatethe alarm indicator 67.

Turning now additionally to FIGS. 29-31, another aspect of the inventionfor a battery power saving mode will now be described. By way ofexample, the power saving mode may be particularly applicable when thevehicle tracking unit 25 is switched to the armed mode based upon theignition switch 65 being switched off, as previously discussed above.

As will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, the wirelesscommunications device 44 may include a receiver 291, and a transmitter292 for communicating with the monitoring station 30. As noted above,the vehicle tracking unit 25 may include the security device detectioncircuit 260, and it may also include a battery sensing circuit 290 forsensing a voltage of at least one of the back-up battery 54 and thevehicle battery 61.

Beginning at Block 300, the controller 40 may cooperate with the batterysensing circuit 290 to determine whether a voltage of the batterysupplying power to the vehicle tracing unit 25 (which could be eitherthe vehicle battery 61 or the back-up battery 54, for example) hasfallen below a threshold, at Block 301. In the case of the vehiclebattery 61, the threshold may advantageously be set to a voltage levelrequired to start the vehicle (e.g., greater than about 11.5 Volts). Forthe back-up battery 54, the threshold may correspond to a voltage levelsufficient to allow the transmitter 292 to continue sending securityand/or position signals.

If the sensed battery voltage is below the threshold, the controller 40may then disable operation of the receiver 291, at Block 303. In someembodiments, the controller 40 may wait a predetermined period beforedisabling the operation of the receiver 291. The controller 40 maypreferably enable operation of the transmitter 292 irrespective of thesensed battery voltage (i.e., even when the sensed voltage falls belowthe threshold), at Block 304, thus concluding the power saving mode(Block 305).

As such, the controller 40 may advantageously allow the receiver 291,which may consume a significant amount of battery power, to remain on aslong as possible while preserving enough battery power to allow thevehicle 21 to be started (i.e., when the vehicle battery 61 is supplyingpower) and/or to allow other components of the vehicle tracking unit 25to function properly. Accordingly, the controller 40 may still cooperatewith the wireless communications device 44 to send security and/orposition signals to the monitoring station 30.

In particular, the controller 40 may enable operation of the receiver291 based upon the sensed battery voltage being above the threshold fora predetermined duration, at Block 312. Accordingly, if the sensedvoltage only momentarily falls below the threshold, the receiver 291will not unnecessarily be disabled and incoming signals potentiallymissed. To this end, the receiver 291 when enabled may operatesubstantially continuously, and the transmitter 292 when enabled mayoperate substantially intermittently based upon the security devicedetector circuit 260 to send security signals, as previously discussedabove.

To provide even further power savings, the controller 40 may also enableoperation of the vehicle position determining device 42 based upon thesensed battery voltage being above the threshold, at Block 313, anddisable operation of the vehicle position determining device 42 basedupon the sensed battery voltage being below the threshold, at Block 310.Again, the controller 40 may enable operation of the vehicle positiondetermining device based upon the sensed battery voltage being above thethreshold for the predetermined duration (Block 312).

Of course, those of skill in the art will appreciate that while a singleduration has been illustrative shown in FIG. 31 for clarity ofillustration, separate durations (or even separate voltage thresholds)could be used for enabling the receiver 291 and the vehicle positiondetermining device 42. Moreover, if the vehicle tracking unit 25includes additional components (e.g., an upgrade device, as will bediscussed further below), such components may also be similarly disabledto further conserve power, as will be appreciated by those of skill inthe art. It should be noted that the controller 40 may alsoadvantageously cooperate with the wireless communications device 44 insome embodiments to send a low power message to the monitoring station30 based upon the sensed battery voltage being below the threshold, atBlock 311. Here again, the controller 40 may delay a predetermined timebefore so doing in some embodiments.

Referring now to FIGS. 32 and 33, the vehicle tracking unit 25 may alsoinclude a housing 320 for carrying the various components thereof (i.e.,the vehicle position determining device 42, the wireless communicationsdevice 44, the controller 40, etc.). Additionally, an upgrade connector321 may be carried by the housing 320 and coupled to the controller 40.As such, in accordance with another advantageous aspect of theinvention, an upgrade device 322 may be removably coupled to the upgradeconnector 321, as illustratively shown in FIG. 32, for causing thecontroller 40 to perform at least one vehicle function.

More particularly, the vehicle tracking unit 25 may further include oneor more remote transmitters 60 to be carried by a user, and the upgradedevice 322 may include a receiver 330 for causing the controller 40 toperform the at least one vehicle function based upon signals from theremote transmitter. The remote transmitter 60 may generatepseudorandomly coded signals, for example, to provide enhanced security,as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art.

Numerous vehicle functions may be performed based upon the type ofupgrade device 322 that is used. By way of example, such vehiclefunctions may include either locking or unlocking vehicle doors via thedoor lock actuator 62, remote starting the vehicle's engine via theremote start device 63, and/or activating the alarm indicator 67. Othervehicle functions may also be performed, as will be appreciated by thoseof skill in the art. Moreover, a given upgrade device 322 may provideone or more of such functions. Accordingly, a user may install thevehicle tracking unit 25 and at a later time relatively easily upgradethe vehicle tracking unit to provide such additional functionality.Furthermore, the upgrade device 322 may utilize some of the controlcircuitry already provided in the controller 40, so both space and costsavings may potentially be realized.

The upgrade device 322 may be powered by the vehicle battery 61 via theupgrade connector 321. More particularly, the vehicle tracking unit 25may further include a voltage regulator 331 carried by the housing 320and coupled to the vehicle battery 61, and the upgrade device 322 may bepowered by the voltage regulator via the upgrade connector 321. Moreparticularly, the voltage regulator 331 may provide a voltage to theupgrade device 322 that is lower than a voltage of the vehicle battery61.

By way of example, the vehicle battery 61 may provide about twelveVolts, while the upgrade device 322 may preferably operate off aboutfive Volts. Of course, other voltages may also be used. Further, theback-up battery 54 may also be carried by the housing 320, asillustratively shown in FIG. 33, and the upgrade device 322 may beselectively powered by the back-up battery 54 via the upgrade connector321.

A serial communications link 332 may be used to connect the controller40 and the upgrade device 322 via the upgrade connector 321. In someembodiments, the upgrade device 322 may also include one or moreconnectors 323 to be connected to at least one vehicle device. Thus,instead of controlling the various vehicle devices via the controller40, the upgrade device may directly control vehicle devices via theconnector 323.

By way of example, for an alarm/keyless entry upgrade device embodiment,connectors 323 may be included for a valet switch, an LED light (orlights), shock sensors, door and hood trigger wires, and for flashingvehicle lights, as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art. Inanother embodiment for a remote start upgrade device, connectors 323 maybe included for the car starter relays to be connected thereto, forexample. Of course, other connector types known to those of skill in theart may also be used.

Another advantageous aspect of the invention will now be described withreference to FIGS. 34 and 35. As noted above, the controller 40 maycooperate with the vehicle position determining device 42 and thewireless communications device 44 to send vehicle position informationto the monitoring station 30 based upon receiving an activation signalvia a communications network.

In accordance with this aspect of the invention, beginning at Block 340the controller 40 may selectively cause the vehicle tracking unit 25 tobe in a low power mode, at Block 341, to conserve power, as discussedpreviously above. The controller 40 may also cooperate with the wirelesscommunications device 44 to intermittently awaken the vehicle trackingunit 25 from the low power mode to poll the communications network(Block 342) to thereby determine whether the activation signal has beendirected to the vehicle tracking unit, at Block 343. The polling mayadvantageously be relatively short (e.g., less than a minute) to reduceboth power consumption and wireless communications charges.

The vehicle position information may then be sent to the monitoringstation 30 one or more times, at Block 344, as previously describedabove, concluding this aspect (Block 345). As such, the monitoringstation 30 need not be synchronized with the vehicle tracking unit 25because the user does not have to send the activation during a briefwindow when the unit is active, as is the case with some prior artvehicle tracking units.

In particular, the controller 40 may selectively cause the vehicletracking unit 25 to be in the low power mode based upon the vehicle'sengine being off. Moreover, the controller 40 may detect the enginebeing off based upon the vehicle ignition switch 65 being switched to anoff position. Also, the controller 40 may selectively cause the vehicletracking unit 25 to be in the low power mode responsive to the passageof a predetermined time since the engine was turned off, and/orresponsive to a voltage of the vehicle battery 61 dropping below athreshold.

The communications network may be a cellular communications network, forexample. The cellular communications network may store indications ofmissed calls, and the activation signal may be stored as at least onemissed call by the cellular communications network, as will beappreciated by those skilled in the art. Alternately, the cellularcommunications network may store voice mail messages, and the activationsignal may be stored as a voice mail message by the cellularcommunications network. Further, the cellular communications network maytransmit data packets and/or voice data, as will also be appreciated bythose skilled in the art.

The controller 40 may also cooperate with the wireless communicationsdevice 44 for determining when the communications network is out ofrange, at Block 350, and for determining when the communications networkis back in range after being out of range, at Block 351. Thecommunications network may then be polled as discussed above when backin range of the vehicle tracking unit 25 to determine whether theactivation signal has been directed to the vehicle tracking unit whilethe communications network was out of range. Thus, both missedactivation signals sent while the vehicle tracking unit 25 is in the lowpower mode and/or out of range may still be received. It should be notedthat either one or both of these options may be used in variousembodiments.

The communications network may also provide a notification to themonitoring station 30 upon being polled by the wireless communicationsdevice, at Block 352. The controller 40 may also wait a predeterminedtime after receiving the activation signal before selectively causingthe vehicle tracking unit 25 to return to the low power mode. Forexample, the predetermined time may be on the order of a few minutes. Inaddition, the wireless communications device may include a receiver 291,as noted above, and the controller 40 may cause the receiver to beturned off when the vehicle tracking unit 25 is in the low power mode.Intervals of awakening the vehicle tracking unit 25 from the low powermode may be in a range of about 12 to 48 hours, for example, thoughother intervals may also be used.

In an alternate embodiment of the invention illustratively shown in FIG.36, the vehicle 21 may include a vehicle data bus 360 extendingthroughout the vehicle and which is connected to one or more operablevehicle devices. As illustratively shown, such operable vehicle devicesmay include the vehicle alarm indicator 67 (e.g., horn, siren, etc.), akeyless entry device, the engine starter interrupt device 66, the remotestart device 63, the door lock actuator 62, and the vehicle securitycontroller 28, although others may also be included as will beappreciated by those of skill in the art. Furthermore, other devices tobe monitored, such as the ignition switch 65, may also be connected tothe vehicle data bus 360, for example.

Furthermore, one or more of the operable vehicle devices may beresponsive to at least one data bus code received on the vehicle databus 360. More particularly, each of the above listed operable vehicledevices may have one or more unique data bus codes assigned theretowhich, when received, cause a respective operable vehicle device toperform a particular function, as will be understood by those skilled inthe art.

As such, a method according to the present invention is illustrativelyshown in FIG. 37 in which, beginning at Block 370, the controller 40generates at least one data bus code on the vehicle data bus 360 tocontrol at least one operable vehicle device based upon a command signalreceived by the wireless communications device 44, at Blocks 371 and372. Accordingly, the user may not only use the vehicle tracking unit 25to control numerous vehicle devices, but separate connections betweensuch devices and the controller 40 need not be made. Instead, each ofthe operable vehicle devices may conveniently be connected to thevehicle data bus 360, which may make the installation thereof easier.

In some embodiments, the command signal received by the wirelesscommunications device 44 may include the at least one data bus code.Alternately, the command signal may relate to the at least one data buscode, and the controller 40 may process the command signal to generatethe at least one data bus code on the vehicle data bus 360, as will beunderstood by those skilled in the art.

Further, the command signal may be provided by the monitoring station30, and the controller 40 may optionally cooperate with the wirelesscommunications device 44 to send a response message to the monitoringstation based upon receiving the command signal, at Block 373, thusending the method (Block 374). By way of example, the wirelesscommunications device 44 may receive the vehicle data bus device codevia a wireless pager network, although other suitable communicationsformats may also be used.

Another advantageous aspect of the invention is for a vehicle controlsystem including the vehicle tracking unit 25 and a function controller,which may cooperate to alert a user that uniquely coded transmittershave been learned by the vehicle function unit, will now be describedwith reference to FIGS. 38 and 39. By way of example, the function unitmay be the vehicle security system 27, and the functions performedthereby may include security and/or door locking/unlocking functions, aspreviously described above.

Of course, in some embodiments the function unit may be the door lockactuator 62 itself responsive to a remote transmitter 60 for performingdoor lock/unlock functions. Another example of a function unit is theremote start device 63 for starting the vehicle's engine, also describedabove. Of course, other function units may also be used, as will beappreciated by those of skill in the art. It should be noted that whilethe various function units noted above are illustratively shown as beingseparate devices from the vehicle tracking unit 25, in some embodimentsthese units may be included within a single device, as will beunderstood by those of skill in the art. In particular, as describedabove, a remote start device and/or security controller may be embodiedin an upgrade device 322 to be connected or plugged into the upgradeconnector 321, for example.

Using the example of the vehicle security system 27 as the functionunit, as illustratively shown in FIG. 36, the function unit may includeone (or more) uniquely coded transmitter 60 to be carried by a user, anda receiver 29 at the vehicle 21 for receiving signals from the uniquelycoded transmitter, at Blocks 380-381. The function unit 27 may alsoinclude a function controller (the vehicle security controller 28 in thepresent example) at the vehicle 21 and connected to the receiver 29. Thefunction controller 28 cooperates with the receiver 29 to learn theuniquely coded transmitter 60 to permit control of one or more vehiclefunctions (here, security and/or door locking/unlocking functions) bythe user, at Block 382.

In accordance with this aspect of the invention, the function controller28 may advantageously cooperate with the wireless communications device44 of the vehicle tracking unit 25 for sending an alert indication ofwhether one or more new uniquely coded transmitters have been learned,at Block 383, thus concluding the method (Block 384). Accordingly, ifthe uniquely coded transmitter 60 learned by the function controller 28is an unauthorized transmitter, such as one a would-be thief may use toattempt to gain access to the vehicle 21, the user will advantageouslybe notified of this fact and may alert the proper authorities.

The vehicle control system may further include a local indicator (avehicle security system indicator 361 in the illustrated example of FIG.36) connected to the function controller 28 for providing a localindication of whether one or more uniquely coded transmitters 60 havebeen learned. Thus, if the user for some reason does not receive thealert indication to this effect, he will still be notified of this factupon returning to the vehicle 21.

In addition, the function controller 28 may be switchable to a learningmode to permit learning of the at least one uniquely coded transmitter,at Block 390, and the function controller may cooperate with thewireless communications device 44 for sending the alert indication whenthe learning mode has been entered, for example, as may be seen in FIG.39. Moreover, the function controller 28 may cooperate with the wirelesscommunications device 44 for sending the alert indication when thelearning mode has last been entered.

Additionally, the function controller 28 may cooperate with the wirelesscommunications device 44 for sending the alert indication for a passageof time since the learning mode has last been entered, at Block 391.Similarly, the function controller 28 may cooperate with the wirelesscommunications device 44 for sending the alert indication for a numberof learned uniquely coded transmitters, as well as for sending the alertindication for a change in a number of learned uniquely codedtransmitters 60, and/or for sending the alert indication for a change ina code of at least one learned uniquely coded transmitter. The uniquelycoded transmitter(s) 60 may be at least one of a uniquely coded remotetransmitter and a uniquely coded transponder transmitter, for example,as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.

In accordance with a similar aspect of the invention, the function unit28 may instead of, or in addition to, the uniquely coded transmitter 60also include a biometric characteristic sensor 362 for sensing a uniquebiometric characteristic of a user, at Block 401. In this embodiment,the function controller 28 may similarly learn the unique biometriccharacteristic, at Block 402, to permit control of a vehicle function bythe user.

Again, the function controller 28 may cooperate with the wirelesscommunications device 44 for sending (Block 403) an alert indication ofwhether at least one new unique biometric characteristic has beenlearned, thus concluding the method (Block 404). Of course, the learningmode, time-delayed sending, and location indication steps describedabove may similarly be performed with respect to learning biometriccharacteristics, as illustratively shown at Blocks 410-412,respectively.

Turning now to FIGS. 42 and 43, another advantageous aspect of theinvention for determining fault conditions of the vehicle tracking unit25 will now be described. More particularly, beginning at Block 420, thecontroller 40 may monitor operation of the vehicle 21 and determine afault condition of at least one of the vehicle position determiningdevice 42 and the wireless communications device 44 based upon a failurethereof over a predetermined pattern of vehicle operation, at Blocks422-423. By way of example, the fault condition may be based upon areceived signal strength, although other faults may also be indicated.

Moreover, the controller 40 may also store the fault condition, at Block424, and permit retrieval of the stored fault condition, at Block 425,thus concluding the fault sensing operation (Block 426). In particular,the controller 40 may monitor the operation of the vehicle 21 bymonitoring the vehicle's ignition (e.g., via the ignition switch 65),for example, to determine whether the ignition has been operational forgreater than a time threshold (e.g., fifteen minutes), at Block 430.Thus, occurrences of determining momentary operational errors (e.g.,failure of the wireless communications device 44 to communicate with acommunications network due to interference) as significant faultconditions may be reduced.

The predetermined pattern of vehicle operation may include a series ofsuccessive operations of the ignition. That is, a predetermined numberof faults (e.g., two) will need to occur, at Block 428, before the localfault indication is provided (Block 431). Here again, this also helps toincrease the likelihood that only a true fault condition will result ina fault indication being provided.

Further, if, at any time after the fault condition has been determinedbut before the fault indication is provided, the fault condition iscorrected (e.g., the wireless communications device 44 comes back inrange of a communications network after being out of range for anextended period), at Block 427, the controller 40 may determine that thedevice in question is in fact working. In such event, the fault countmay be reset, at Block 429, and the fault monitoring process may beginagain.

The controller 40 may permit user retrieval of the stored faultcondition based upon selective operation of the ignition switch and/orremotely by the monitoring station 30 upon request. Regarding theformer, an indicator 363 (FIG. 36) may also be connected to thecontroller 40 to provide a local fault indication based upon retrievalof the stored fault condition. By way of example, the indicator 363 mayinclude at least one of an audible and a visual indicator, such as atone generator or an LED. Of course, one or more of the other indicatorsnoted above may also be used for this purpose.

It should be noted that the controller 40 may determine and store faultconditions of one or both the vehicle position determining device 42 andthe wireless communications device 44 in various embodiments. Similarly,the local fault indication may correspond to either the vehicle positiondetermining device 42, the wireless communications device 44, or both.

In accordance with another aspect of the invention described now withreference to FIGS. 44 and 45, beginning at Block 440 the controller 40may also monitor the vehicle alarm indicator 67 to determine triggeringthereof, at Block 441, and monitor at least one power supply todetermine a change therein, at Block 442. More particularly, the atleast one power supply may be the vehicle battery 61 or the back-upbattery 54. By way of example, the controller may monitor the vehiclebattery 61/back-up battery 54 via the battery sensing circuit 290 (FIG.29), which may be connected to one or both of these batteries. Further,the controller 40 in cooperation with the wireless communications device44 may cause at least one alert to be sent to the monitoring station 30based upon both triggering of the vehicle alarm indicator 67 and achange in the at least one power supply, at Block 443, to concludenotification to the user (Block 444).

More particularly, the at least one alert may include a first alert(Block 451) based upon the alarm indicator 67 being triggered, and asecond alert (Block 452) based upon the voltage of the at least onepower supply (e.g., the vehicle battery 61) being below a threshold, asillustratively shown in FIG. 45. By way of example, the threshold may beless than about 4 Volts, although other thresholds may also be used. Tothis end, the vehicle tracking unit 25 in such embodiments willpreferably include the back-up battery 54 for providing back-up power tothe controller 40 and the wireless communications device 44 upon such adrop in voltage of the vehicle battery 61.

Accordingly, the vehicle tracking unit 25 of the present invention willadvantageously send the second alert even if the first alert is notsent. For example, in some embodiments the controller 40 may monitor thevehicle alarm indicator 67 to determine triggering thereof continuouslyfor greater than a predetermined time (e.g., a few seconds), at Block450, before sending the first alert, at Block 451. This may be done toallow a user time to deactivate an errantly generated alarm conditionbefore the first alert is sent and wireless communications chargesunnecessarily incurred.

Yet, because of this delay period, a would-be thief could potentiallycut the battery cable quickly enough to prevent the first alert fromever being sent. Nonetheless, by so doing, in accordance with thepresent invention the second alert will still be sent, and the user willtherefore still be notified of the attempted theft of the vehicle 21. Itshould be noted that the controller 40 may also monitor the vehiclealarm indicator 67 to determine triggering in a repetitive pattern(Block 450), either in addition to or instead of monitoring forcontinuous triggering for a predetermined time, before sending the firstalert. Further, instead of monitoring the vehicle battery 61 for a dropin voltage provided thereby to determine that the battery cables havebeen cut, this could also be done based upon detecting a sudden powerdrain on the back-up battery 54, which would also provide an indicationthat the cables to the vehicle battery had be severed.

Turning now to FIGS. 46 and 47, an additional aspect of the inventionwill now be described for performing diagnostics of output drivercircuits (i.e., the outputs 53 described above) for various vehicledevices and, correspondingly, whether the CPU 50 is providing correctoutput signals thereto. In accordance with this aspect of the invention,beginning at Block 461 the controller 40 may be switchable to adiagnostic mode, at Block 461, wherein at least one output drivercircuit 53 is tested, at Block 462. Results of the testing may beindicated by one or more local diagnostic indicators, at Block 463, suchas the previously noted indicators 363, 43, 45, for example, concludingthe diagnostic operations (Block 464).

More particularly, the input device 170 (e.g., a switch) and/or adiagnostic signal received from the monitoring station 30 via thecontroller 40 and the wireless communications device 44 may be used forswitching the controller to the diagnostic mode, at Block 470. In someembodiments, the controller 40 when in the diagnostic mode may determinewhether each driver circuit 53 is connected to respective vehicledevices, at Block 471, to define one or more respective connected outputdriver circuits 53. Thus, the controller 40, when in the diagnosticmode, may advantageously test only the output driver circuit or circuits53 which are connected, if desired. Of course, this need not be thecase, and it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that theoutput driver circuits 53 may advantageously be tested without beingconnected, so that the vehicle tracking unit 25 of the present inventioncan be tested prior to installation, for example.

By way of example, the controller 40 when in the diagnostic mode maysequentially test a plurality (or all) of the output driver circuits 53(Block 472). Thus, by knowing which output driver circuits 53 will betested in the diagnostic mode (e.g., which ones are connected to vehicledevices), the user may relatively easily determine which of the outputdriver circuits, if any, are not functioning correctly when acorresponding indication is not provided in the sequence of indications,as will be understood by those of skill in the art.

As illustratively shown in FIGS. 46 and 47, the controller 40 maycooperate with the diagnostic indicator(s) 363, for example, so that itis only operable when the controller is in the diagnostic mode. Thisfeature may be particularly beneficial when an output driver circuit 53is connected to a particular vehicle device, as the local diagnosticindicator 363 may otherwise provide an unwanted indication each time thevehicle device is activated during normal use, as will be appreciated bythose of skill in the art.

As noted above, the local diagnostic indicator 363 may include anaudible indicator and/or a visual indicator. In some embodiments, arespective diagnostic indicator 363 may be included for each outputdriver circuit 53, although this is not required. The controller 40 mayalso cooperate with the wireless communications device 44 to send testresult indications to the monitoring station 30, at Block 473. As such,the user and/or a monitoring service may remotely determine whether thevehicle tracking unit 25 is functioning correctly.

Other features relating to vehicle tracking units and systems aredisclosed in co-pending patent applications entitled VEHICLE TRACKERCONSERVING CODES AND RELATED METHODS, application Ser. No. 09/859,673;VEHICLE TRACKER WITH POWER SAVING FEATURES AND RELATED METHODS,application Ser. No. 09/859,728; VEHICLE TRACKER COOPERATING WITH ASTARTER INTERRUPT AND RELATED METHODS, application Ser. No. 09/859,973;VEHICLE TRACKER WITH USER NOTIFICATIONS AND ASSOCIATED METHODS,application Ser. No. 09/859,733; VEHICLE TRACKER WITH USER REGISTRATIONREMINDER AND RELATED METHODS, application Ser. No. 09/859,971; VEHICLETRACKER INCLUDING INPUT/OUTPUT FEATURES AND RELATED METHODS, applicationSer. No. 09/859,972; and VEHICLE TRACKER WITH TEST FEATURES AND RELATEDMETHODS, application Ser. No. 09/859,729; VEHICLE TRACKING UNITPROVIDING DIRECTION DEVIATION TRACKING AND RELATED METHODS, Ser. No.10/105,778; VEHICLE TRACKER HAVING SWITCAHABLE POLARITY OUTPUT TERMINALSAND RELATED METHODS, Ser. No. 10/105,702; VEHICLE TRACKING OUT PROVIDINGVARIABLE FREQUENCY TRANSMISSION AND RELATED METHODS, Ser. No.10/105,845; VEHICLE TRACKER HAVING FIND ALERT FEATURES AND RELATEDMETHODS, Ser. No. 10/105,896; VEHICLE TRACKER PROVIDING VEHICLE ALARMALERT FEATURES AND RELATED METHODS, Ser. No. 10/105,487; VEHICLE TRACKERINCLUDING OVERRIDE FEATURE AND RELATED METHODS, Ser. No. 10/105,751;VEHICLE TRACKER INCLUDING SECURITY DEVICE MONITORING BYPASS FEATURE ANDRELATED METHODS, Ser. No. 10/105,654; VEHICLE TRACKER INCLUDING BATTERYMONITORING FEATURE AND RELATED METHODS, Ser. No. 10/105,858; VEHICLETRACKER INCLUDING A CONNECTOR FOR AN UPGRADE DEVICE AND RELATED METHODS,Ser. No. 10/105,980; VEHICLE TRACKER INCLUDING MISSED CALL FEATURE ANDRELATED METHODS, Ser. No. 10/105,860; VEHICLE TRACKING UNIT FORCONTROLING OPERABLE VEHICLE DEVICES USING A VEHICLE DATA BUS AND RELATEDMETHODS, Ser. No. 10/105,856; VEHICLE TRACKING UNIT WITH FAULT CONDITIONDIAGNOSIS AND RELATED METHODS, Ser. No. 10/105,852; VEHICLE TRACKINGUNIT PROVIDING THEFT ALERT NOTIFICATIONS AND RELATED METHODS, Ser. No.10/105,667; VEHICLE TRACKING UNIT HAVING A SELF DIAGNOSTIC MODE ANDRELATED METHODS, Ser, No. 10/105,513; and VEHICLE TRACKER INCLUDINGVARIABLE FREQUENCY TRANSMISSION AND RELATED METHODS, Ser. No.10/105,676, the entire disclosures of which are hereby incorporatedherein by reference.

Many modifications and other embodiments of the invention will come tothe mind of one skilled in the art having the benefit of the teachingspresented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings.Therefore, it is understood that the invention is not to be limited tothe specific embodiments disclosed, and that modifications andembodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the appendedclaims.

That which is claimed is:
 1. A vehicle control system comprising: atracking unit and a function unit cooperating therewith, said trackingunit comprising a vehicle position determining device, a wirelesscommunications device, and a tracking controller cooperating with saidvehicle position determining device and said wireless communicationsdevice to send vehicle position information to a monitoring station;said function unit comprising at least one uniquely coded transmitter tobe carried by a user, a receiver at the vehicle for receiving signalsfrom said at least one uniquely coded transmitter, and a functioncontroller at the vehicle and connected to said receiver for learningthe at least one uniquely coded transmitter to permit control of avehicle function by the user; said function controller cooperating withsaid wireless communications device of said tracking unit for sending analert indication of whether at least one new uniquely coded transmitterhas been learned.
 2. The vehicle control system according to claim 1further comprising a local indicator connected to said functioncontroller for providing a local indication of whether at least oneuniquely coded transmitter has been learned.
 3. The vehicle controlsystem according to claim 1 wherein the vehicle function is associatedwith starting of a vehicle engine.
 4. The vehicle control systemaccording to claim 1 wherein the vehicle function is associated withvehicle door locks.
 5. The vehicle control system according to claim 1wherein the vehicle function is associated with vehicle security.
 6. Thevehicle control system according to claim 1 wherein said functioncontroller is switchable to a learning mode to permit learning of the atleast one uniquely coded transmitter; and wherein said functioncontroller cooperates with said wireless communications device forsending the alert indication when the learning mode has been entered. 7.The vehicle control system according to claim 6 wherein said functioncontroller cooperates with said wireless communications device forsending the alert indication when the learning mode has last beenentered.
 8. The vehicle control system according to claim 1 wherein saidfunction controller cooperates with said wireless communications devicefor sending the alert indication for a passage of time since thelearning mode has last been entered.
 9. The vehicle control systemaccording to claim 1 wherein said function controller cooperates withsaid wireless communications device for sending the alert indication fora number of learned uniquely coded transmitters.
 10. The vehicle controlsystem according to claim 1 wherein said function controller cooperateswith said wireless communications device for sending the alertindication for a change in a number of learned uniquely codedtransmitters.
 11. The vehicle control system according to claim 1wherein said function controller cooperates with said wirelesscommunications device for sending the alert indication for a change in acode of at least one learned uniquely coded transmitter.
 12. The vehiclecontrol system according to claim 1 wherein said at least one uniquelycoded transmitter comprises at least one uniquely coded remotetransmitter.
 13. The vehicle control system according to claim 1 whereinsaid at least one uniquely coded transmitter comprises at least oneuniquely coded transponder transmitter.
 14. The vehicle control systemaccording to claim 1 wherein said vehicle position determining devicecomprises a Global Positioning System (GPS) device.
 15. The vehiclecontrol system according to claim 1 wherein said wireless communicationsdevice comprises a cellular telephone communications device.
 16. Avehicle control system comprising: a tracking unit and a function unitcooperating therewith, said tracking unit comprising a vehicle positiondetermining device, a wireless communications device, and a trackingcontroller cooperating with said vehicle position determining device andsaid wireless communications device to send vehicle position informationto a monitoring station; said function unit comprising a biometriccharacteristic sensor for sensing a unique biometric characteristic of auser, and a function controller at the vehicle and connected to saidbiometric characteristic sensor for learning the unique biometriccharacteristic to permit control of a vehicle function by the user; saidfunction controller cooperating with said wireless communications deviceof said tracking unit for sending an alert indication of whether atleast one new unique biometric characteristic has been learned.
 17. Thevehicle control system according to claim 16 further comprising a localindicator connected to said function controller for providing a localindication of whether the unique biometric characteristic has beenlearned.
 18. The vehicle control system according to claim 16 whereinthe vehicle function is associated with starting of a vehicle engine.19. The vehicle control system according to claim 16 wherein the vehiclefunction is associated with vehicle door locks.
 20. The vehicle controlsystem according to claim 16 wherein the vehicle function is associatedwith vehicle security.
 21. The vehicle control system according to claim16 wherein said function controller is switchable to a learning mode topermit learning of the unique biometric characteristic; and wherein saidfunction controller cooperates with said wireless communications devicefor sending the alert indication when the learning mode has beenentered.
 22. The vehicle control system according to claim 21 whereinsaid function controller cooperates with said wireless communicationsdevice for sending the alert indication when the learning mode has lastbeen entered.
 23. The vehicle control system according to claim 16wherein said function controller cooperates with said wirelesscommunications device for sending the alert indication for a passage oftime since the learning mode has last been entered.
 24. The vehiclecontrol system according to claim 16 wherein said function controllercooperates with said wireless communications device for sending thealert indication for a number of learned uniquely coded transmitters.25. The vehicle control system according to claim 16 wherein saidfunction controller cooperates with said wireless communications devicefor sending the alert indication for a change in a number of learnedunique biometric characteristics.
 26. The vehicle control systemaccording to claim 16 wherein said vehicle position determining devicecomprises a Global Positioning System (GPS) device.
 27. The vehiclecontrol system according to claim 16 wherein said wirelesscommunications device comprises a cellular telephone communicationsdevice.
 28. A vehicle control method for a vehicle comprising a vehicletracking unit for sending vehicle position information to a monitoringstation, the method comprising: receiving signals from at least oneuniquely coded transmitter at a receiver at the vehicle; learning the atleast one uniquely coded transmitter to permit control of a vehiclefunction by the user using a function controller at the vehicle andconnected to the receiver; sending an alert indication of whether atleast one new uniquely coded transmitter has been learned using thevehicle tracking unit.
 29. The method according to claim 28 furthercomprising providing a local indication at the vehicle of whether atleast one uniquely coded transmitter has been learned.
 30. The methodaccording to claim 28 wherein the vehicle function is associated withstarting of a vehicle engine.
 31. The method according to claim 28wherein the vehicle function is associated with vehicle door locks. 32.The method according to claim 28 wherein the vehicle function isassociated with vehicle security.
 33. The method according to claim 28wherein the function controller is switchable to a learning mode topermit learning of the at least one uniquely coded transmitter; andwherein sending comprises sending the alert indication when the learningmode has been entered.
 34. The method according to claim 33 whereinsending comprises sending the alert indication when the learning modehas last been entered.
 35. The method according to claim 28 whereinsending comprises sending the alert indication for a passage of timesince the learning mode has last been entered.
 36. The method accordingto claim 28 wherein sending comprises sending the alert indication for anumber of learned uniquely coded transmitters.
 37. The method accordingto claim 28 wherein sending comprises sending the alert indication for achange in a number of learned uniquely coded transmitters.
 38. Themethod according to claim 28 wherein sending comprises sending the alertindication for a change in a code of at least one learned uniquely codedtransmitter.
 39. The vehicle control method according to claim 28wherein the at least one uniquely coded transmitter comprises at leastone uniquely coded remote transmitter.
 40. The vehicle control methodaccording to claim 28 wherein the at least one uniquely codedtransmitter comprises at least one uniquely coded transpondertransmitter.
 41. A vehicle control method for a vehicle comprising avehicle tracking unit for sending vehicle position information to amonitoring station, the method comprising: sensing a unique biometriccharacteristic of a user using a biometric characteristic sensor at thevehicle; learning the unique biometric characteristic to permit controlof a vehicle function by the user using a function controller at thevehicle and connected to the biometric characteristic sensor; andsending an alert indication of whether at least one new unique biometriccharacteristic has been learned using the vehicle tracking unit.
 42. Themethod according to claim 41 further comprising providing a localindication of whether the unique biometric characteristic has beenlearned.
 43. The method according to claim 41 wherein the vehiclefunction is associated with starting of a vehicle engine.
 44. The methodaccording to claim 41 wherein the vehicle function is associated withvehicle door locks.
 45. The method according to claim 41 wherein thevehicle function is associated with vehicle security.
 46. The methodaccording to claim 41 wherein the function controller is switchable to alearning mode to permit learning of the unique biometric characteristic;and wherein sending comprises sending the alert indication when thelearning mode has been entered.
 47. The method according to claim 46wherein sending comprises sending the alert indication when the learningmode has last been entered.
 48. The method according to claim 41 whereinsending comprises sending the alert indication for a passage of timesince the learning mode has last been entered.
 49. The method accordingto claim 41 wherein sending comprises sending the alert indication for anumber of learned uniquely coded transmitters.
 50. The method accordingto claim 41 wherein sending comprises sending the alert indication for achange in a number of learned unique biometric characteristics.